Why was a lottery used to boost Jerusalem's population?
Nehemiah 11:1
What does Memorial Day, honoring American Veterans today, and Jerusalem Day - marking this day on the Jewish calendar back in 1967 when both East and West Jerusalem became a single political entity under Israeli rule - have in common with today’s chapter Below the Bible Belt?
Well - it’s a stretch, but today honors those who fall in the line of duty to defend their nation; a holy city that is still the heart of an heartbreaking ongoing war, and a story about how this city was fought over, destroyed - and rebuilt, again, and again.
At what cost? Why is this city such an enduring symbol?
How many living cities in the world are as old as Jerusalem - and how many can claim that part of their claim to fame was a lottery that was created to boost its urban growth?
It’s an odd anecdote from this holy city’s history, showing up in this chapter - whether it actually happened - or not.
On our Below the Bible Belt journey - we walk Jerusalem’s reconstruction mid 5th Century BCE. Very little archeological findings are likely proof that is was a modest affair - but still - likely some version of this happened.
Nehemiah’s wall was up around the city and a communal pledge was signed among the people in the previous chapter- but Jerusalem was actually empty.
Wide open and vulnerable, the city, with a temple at its heart, stood mostly desolate during the first years after Nehemiah’s return from exile.
Back in chapter 4 Nehemiah describes this urban crisis:
“The city was broad and large, the people in it were few, and houses were not yet built.”
Inspired to fill the city once again, he launches another census and a resettlement project that would shape the rebirth of the capital. But with few volunteers for the hard work of rebuilding and living within Jerusalem’s exposed walls and memories of trauma, Nehemiah turned to a sacred and ancient method of decision-making: the lottery.
He already uses this method before - in the previous chapter, in which people also drew lots to determine who would be responsible for providing the temple’s ongoing firewood offerings. But where you live is a bigger deal than when you pay your temple taxes.
No reason is cited here for why the people objected to resettle the city. There is already mention of those closest to the temple and the administration who lived in the closest compounds and their neighboring areas. But what Nehemiah wanted was a sprawling industrial center that was not only focused on the business of faith. He wanted a civic center. And if the people didn’t volunteer - he found another way to get them there, in the interest of national security and prosperity.
From fuel to families, randomness was seen as guided by God’s will—decisions beyond human bias, sanctified through chance, perhaps also as a way to offer some sort of equality:
וַיֵּשְׁב֥וּ שָׂרֵֽי־הָעָ֖ם בִּירוּשָׁלָ֑͏ִם וּשְׁאָ֣ר הָ֠עָ֠ם הִפִּ֨ילוּ גוֹרָל֜וֹת לְהָבִ֣יא ׀ אֶחָ֣ד מִן־הָעֲשָׂרָ֗ה לָשֶׁ֙בֶת֙ בִּֽירוּשָׁלַ֙͏ִם֙ עִ֣יר הַקֹּ֔דֶשׁ וְתֵ֥שַׁע הַיָּד֖וֹת בֶּעָרִֽים׃
The officers of the people settled in Jerusalem; the rest of the people cast lots for one out of ten to come and settle in the holy city of Jerusalem, and the other nine-tenths to stay in the towns.
Nehemiah 11:1
But who exactly settled Jerusalem? This chapter catalogs a detailed registry of returning families, most from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with supporting Levites and priests. This listing has led some to assume that only these two tribes returned from Babylon.
Yet when we cross-reference 1 Chronicles 9:2–3—an overlapping account—we see a broader picture:
“The first to settle in their towns, on their property, were Israelites, priests, Levites, and temple servants, while some of the Judahites and some of the Benjaminites and some of the Ephraimites and Manassehites settled in Jerusalem.”
This inclusion of tribes from the northern tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh suggests that the returnees weren’t only the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, but a more diverse gathering of Israelites. Chronicles challenges the tidy narrative of a binary tribal return, hinting at a more complex, inclusive resettlement effort. With all of Nehemiah and Ezra’s attempts to divide the ‘sacred seed’ from the locals who stayed behind during the Babylonian exile -- including some of the ten tribes -- was there more of a mixed society that these texts want us to believe?
Perhaps the use of lottery, as was often used in the ancient world for conscription or land-use, was his way of creating a stronger civic center regardless of tribal affinities and loyalties? Between the version found here and the one we’ll soon read in Chronicles are important differences. These are not the only ones - as historical agendas made their way into these books likely hinting at conflicting narratives and historical realities.
One way or another - In a time of ruin, Nehemiah leaned on both structure and spirit—divine inspiration and the randomness of lots—to rebuild the city.
This ancient population draft, part bureaucracy and part theology, helped Jerusalem come back to life—not by command alone, but by chance, choice, and community building.
The rest of the people who stay outside the walls bless the ‘volunteers’ and likely thank their lucky stars that they were not chosen to move into the holy city.
What else is needed for the fabric of societal solidarity to feel thicker and for the city and the nation to start feeling less like a temporary solution and more like a home?
Nehemiah and Ezra have a few more public works up their sleeves as this memoir almost comes to a close.
On this Memorial Day and Jerusalem Day - pause to honor those whose lives were sacrifices on the altars of defense and protection, nation and home, and pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the holy land it is in the middle of, still yearning to be a sacred center for all people, with less war and more kindness, room for all, with safety, serenity, and the simple joys of summer days like today.
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Amen!