Nehemiah 6:15-19

The Completion of the Wall (Nehemiah 6:15); and the impression produced (Nehemiah 6:16): treasonable correspondence (Nehemiah 6:17-19)

15. Elul This month, which is the same as the Assyrian U-lu-lu, corresponds to the end of August and beginning of September. It is mentioned in 1Ma 14:27. The 25th of Elul would be September 444. Elul, the 6th of the sacred year, was the last month of the civil year.

in fifty and two days Nehemiah is evidently calling attention to the remarkable rapidity with which the wall was built. But though a remarkable performance, there is nothing incredible in it; and the suggestion to append to the text -and two years" (so Ewald) would give a period of time strangely at variance with the description of haste and urgency in chap. 5. It is true this would nearly agree with Josephus" statement that the wall took two years and four months building; but Josephus's chronology is not to be preferred to our text, when the LXX. and the Vulgate show no variation. We do not know the grounds which Josephus had for giving -two years and four months;" but even this circumstantial statement disagrees with the proposed reading.

In order to account for the speed with which the wall was built, we must bear in mind, (a) that large numbers of people were employed upon the work, and a thorough system of distribution facilitated its execution; (b) the walls in many parts probably only required repairing, while the materials for the most part lay all ready to hand: (c) Nehemiah and his companions constantly stimulated the people to persevere in the work: (d) according to a very reasonable computation, the 40 lots into which the wall (cf. ch. 3) was distributed averaged about 80 yards apiece, and many lots were omitted in the list.

For another instance of the rapid erection of walls under patriotic stimulus, compare the action of Themistocles and the Athenians (see Grote's Hist. of Greece, vol. IV. p. 333 f.).