Nehemiah 5:16

Yea also I continued in the work, &c. R.V. marg. -Heb. held fast to". It does not appear certain whether Nehemiah here refers to his continuous supervision of the building or to his personal share in the work of restoration at his own cost of some portion of it. The word rendered -continued" (used in its literal sense of -held" in Nehemiah 4:16) admits of either application.

neither bought we any land In connexion with the previous and the following clauses, these words should be taken to mean that Nehemiah and his friends were too strenuously occupied to interest themselves in the purchase of lands. Former governors had possibly made investments in good land. Such transactions were incompatible with Nehemiah's ceaseless devotion to the work. But it is necessary also to regard the words as an allusion to the substance of Nehemiah 5:10. Although they had abundant opportunity to make private gain out of mortgaged property, they withstood the temptation of enriching themselves out of their fellow-countrymen. The word -land" is the same as that which in the Plur. the R.V. has altered to -fields" in Nehemiah 5:3; Nehemiah 5:11.

all my servants were gathered Their work at the wall and in Nehemiah's employ was too incessant to permit of the inspection of purchaseable land or of its proper cultivation if they had purchased it.