Nehemiah 3:2

‘And next to him built the men of Jericho.'

‘And next to him --' is a feature of the next few verses up to Nehemiah 3:12. From then on, a few verses having intervened, it is ‘after him --' (Nehemiah 3:16), although ‘next to him' occurs in Nehemiah 3:17; Nehemiah 3:19. It has been suggested that ‘next to him' indicated that they were following the line of previous walls, whereas ‘after him' indicated a new line for the eastern wall at the top of the eastern ridge, a line made necessary by the rubble from the previous devastation. ‘Next to him' in Nehemiah 3:17; Nehemiah 3:19 may be a deliberate attempt to indicate the closeness of the relationship of the Levites mentioned there.

‘The men of Jericho' were among the returnees (Nehemiah 7:36; Ezra 2:34) although there described as ‘the sons of Jericho'. They had now come to Jerusalem to assist in the building of the wall. This would be at no small sacrifice. It was clearly seen as important for the prestige of the whole area. The Jordan, by Jericho, may well have marked the eastern border of the new district of Judah.

‘And next to them built Zaccur the son of Imri.'

Next to them built Zaccur, the son of Imri. He rebuilt the next section as far as the Fish Gate. Clearly Zaccur did not build on his own. This no doubt refers to him as including the fairly large household or wider family which were his as a prominent and comparatively wealthy man. His whole wider family would be involved in building. It was possibly this Zaccur who was a sealant of Nehemiah's covenant (Nehemiah 10:12), in which case he was a Levite, and probably identifiable with the father of Hanan (Nehemiah 13:13).

Zaccur was a fairly common Jewish name, previously being that of the father of Shammua the Reubenite spy (Numbers 13:4); of a Simeonite (1 Chronicles 4:26); and of two other Levites: (a) a Merarite (1 Chronicles 24:27); and (b) a "son" of Asaph (1 Chronicles 25:2; 1 Chronicles 25:10; Nehemiah 12:35).