The Hyperlinked Bible
Intertextuality Pair
Echo
Later text
We have cast lots among the priests, Levites, and people for the donation of wood by our families at the appointed times each year. They are to bring it to the house of our God to burn on the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the Law.
Earlier text
The fire on the altar shall be kept burning; it must not be extinguished. Every morning the priest is to add wood to the fire, arrange the burnt offering on it, and burn the fat portions of the peace offerings on it.
Leviticus 6:12 commands that "The fire on the altar shall be kept burning; it must not be extinguished. Every morning the priest is to add wood to the fire" (עֵצִים, etzim). Nehemiah 10:34 records the post-exilic community's practical arrangement to fulfill this requirement: "We have cast lots among the priests, Levites, and people for the donation of wood by our families at the appointed times each year. They are to bring it to the house of our God to burn on the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the Law" (the donation of wood, קֻרְבַּן הָעֵצִים). The Nehemiah passage shows the restored community creating a new administrative mechanism — the wood-lot system — to ensure the perpetual fire of Leviticus 6:12 could be maintained. The innovation demonstrates adaptive Torah observance: the same Levitical command, new practical infrastructure.