NISAN. The first month (Abib, Exodus 12:2, &c), called Nisan after the Captivity. This was four months after receiving the news (see App-51.) THE TWENTIETH YEAR. The "seventy sevens" of Daniel 9:24 begin here (454 B.C.) The "seven sevens" (Daniel 9:25), or forty-nine years begin here, and end in 405... [ Continue Reading ]
SORROW OF HEART. See Proverbs 15:13.... [ Continue Reading ]
LET THE KING LIVE. The usual Oriental salutation. LIETH WASTE. Compare Nehemiah 1:3. Impossible if Ezra with his 42,360 returned exiles were already there, and had rebuilt the temple! See notes on Nehemiah 1:2; Nehemiah 5:5, and on the Chronological Structure (p. 617, with the notes on p. 618). See... [ Continue Reading ]
THE QUEEN. Hebrew. _ha-shegal_. wife. Occurs only here and in Psalms 45:9; Daniel 5:2; Daniel 5:3; Daniel 5:23. Not. Hebrew word, but borrowed from the Akkadian _sha_. a bride, and _gal =_ great. Used of. foreign queen. Here it would exactly suit "the great bride" or "foreign (Jewish) queen", Esther... [ Continue Reading ]
GOVERNORS. pashas.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOREST. park. Hebrew. _pardes._. Persian word which occurs only here, Ecclesiastes 2:5, and Song of Solomon 4:13, where it is rendered "orchards". Septuagint renders it "paradise", which occurs twenty-eight times: (nine times. Eden, nineteen times. garden, Hebrew. _gan_.) WALL. Some codices, with o... [ Continue Reading ]
CAPTAINS. princes. ARMY. force.... [ Continue Reading ]
SANBALLATIN An Aramaic papyrus, recently (1909) discovered at Elephantine (in Egypt), was written by two Jews (Delaya and Shelemya) to the sons of this Sanballat, who is called the "governor of Samaria". Here ends the fourth of the ten _Sedarim_ (or, Cycles for public reading) which commenced with E... [ Continue Reading ]
AT JERUSALEM: or, for Jerusalem.... [ Continue Reading ]
BY NIGHT. Could Nehemiah have gone thus secretly if Ezra had 42,360 Jews there? And what need for it? Nehemiah had only. few men, and was in the midst of enemies. THE GATE. Note the twelve gates (corresponding with the twelve gates of Revelation 21:21). See App-59. PORT. gate. VIEWED. kept peerin... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BROOK. Hebrew. _nahal,_. torrent, mostly fed by rains. Not _nahar,_. constant river.... [ Continue Reading ]
RULERS. Hebrew. _seganim,_ used of the Babylonian magistrates or prefects; occurs only in Ezra and Nehemiah. DID. was doing. NOR. Note the Figure of speech _Paradiastole._ App-6. THE REST: i.e. of those who had accompanied Nehemiah.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE DISTRESS. How so, if the Temple was already built?... [ Continue Reading ]
GOOD WORK. This work was "good" because it was "prepared" by God. See Ephesians 2:10.... [ Continue Reading ]
GESNEM. Called Gashmu (Nehemiah 6:6), an Arab Sheik. Like the other two, an alien. In Psalms 83:6, all three nationalities associated as the enemies of Israel. ARABIAN. Descendants of Hagar. Hence Hagarenes. THEY LAUGHED, &C The second form of opposition. See note on "grieved", Nehemiah 2:10.... [ Continue Reading ]