Chapter 7

Once the wall is finished and the gates in place, Nehemiah appoints men to various positions.  There will be singers.  But there will also be guards at all the gates.  The gates are to be closed until the sun is hot.  And they are to be closed back before the guards leave the walls.  At night, there are appointed guards, some on the walls and at the gates, some at their own houses.  This is because the city inside the walls is large, but the residents of the city are few.  There are very few habitable houses in the city.  So probably most of the workers went home when the gates were set.

Nehemiah decides to do a census.  He finds the accounting of all those who came back from Babylon at the first - those who came with Zerubbabel and Joshua.  It also says they came with Mordecai.  Was it the same Mordecai that is in Esther?  They are listed by family - not by individual name.  We learn that 42,360 people came back in this first return. 

This verse caught my eye:  The governor told them that they were not to partake of the most holy food until a priest with Urim and Thummim should arise.

Nehemiah 7:65 ESV

Certain people claiming to be Levites but unable to prove it were excluded until their claims could be proven or disproven with Urim and Thummin.  Maybe something like that is how the 10 Northern Tribes will be identified in Trib/Great Trib.