CHAPTER VII _Nehemiah makes use of proper precautions in guarding the city_ _gates_, 1-4. _He proposes to reckon the people according to their genealogies;_ _and finds a register of those who came out of Babylon, with_ _Zerubbabel_, 5-7. _A transcript of the register_, 8-10. _Account of those... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Nehemiah 7:2. _MY BROTHER HANANI_] This was the person who gave Nehemiah the account of the desolate state of the Jews, Nehemiah 1:2. He is now made ruler of Jerusalem, probably because Nehemiah was about to return to the Persian court. And he found this man to be one in whom he could trust:... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Nehemiah 7:3. _UNTIL THE SUN BE HOT_] The meaning of this is, the gates were not to be _opened_ before _sunrise_, and always _shut_ at _sunset_. This is the custom to the present day in many of the cities of the East if a traveller arrives _after sunset_, he finds the gates shut; and on no con... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Nehemiah 7:4. _THE HOUSES WERE NOT BUILDED._] The city was not yet rebuilt, only a row of houses in the inside of the wall all round.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Nehemiah 7:5. _GOD PUT INTO MINE HEART_] With this good man every _good thing_ was of GOD. If he _purposed_ any good, it was because _God put it into his heart_; if he _did_ any good, it was because _the_ _good hand of his God was upon him_; if he _expected_ any good, it was because he earnest... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Nehemiah 7:7. _WHO CAME WITH ZERUBBABEL_] The register which he found was that of the persons only who came long before Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Joshua the son of Josedek, which register could not answer in every respect to the state of the people then. Several persons and families were no doubt... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Nehemiah 7:8. _THE CHILDREN OF PAROSH_] As this chapter is almost entirely the _same_ with the second chapter of the book of Ezra, it is not necessary to add any thing to what is said there; and to that chapter, and the accompanying notes, the reader is requested to refer.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 19. _THE CHILDREN OF BIGVAL, TWO THOUSAND THREESCORE AND_ _SEVEN_] Some MSS. read _two thousand and sixty-six_, as in Ezra 2:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 33. _THE MEN OF THE OTHER NEBO_] The word _other_ is not in the parallel place, Ezra 2:29, and is wanting in many of _Kennicott's_ and _De Rossi's_ MSS. This _Nebo_ is supposed to be the same as _Nob_ or _Nobah_, in the tribe of Benjamin.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 34. _THE OTHER ELAM_] To distinguish him from the Elam mentioned Nehemiah 7:12.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 54. _THE CHILDREN OF MEHIDA_] Many of _Kennicott's_ and _De_ _Rossi's_ MSS., have _Mehira_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 68. _THEIR HORSES, C._] The whole of this verse is wanting in _fifty_ of _Kennicott's_ MSS., and in _twenty-nine_ of those of _De Rossi_, in the edition of _Rab. Chayim_, 1525, in the _Roman Edit_. of the _Septuagint_ also in the _Syriac_ and in the _Arabic_. It should however be observed, tha... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 69. Their _CAMELS, FOUR HUNDRED THIRTY AND FIVE_] After this verse St. Jerome has inserted the following words in the _Vulgate_: - Hucusque refertur quid in commentario scriptum fuerit; exin Nehemiae historia texitur. "Thus far do the words extend which were written in the register; what f... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 70. _THE TIRSHATHA GAVE_] The _Septuagint_, particularly the copy in the _Codex Alexandrinus_, intimates that this sum was given _to the Tirshatha_, or Nehemiah: Και τῳ Αθερσαθᾳ εδωκαν εις θησαυρον, _And to the Athersatha they gave for the treasure_, c. For the meaning of the word _Tirshath... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 71. _TWO THOUSAND AND TWO HUNDRED POUNDS_] The _Septuagint_ has _two thousand_ THREE _hundred minae of silver_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Nehemiah 7:73. _ALL ISRAEL, DWELT IN THEIR CITIES_] It was in reference to this particularly that the public registers were examined; for by them they found the different _families_, and consequently the cities, villages, c., which belonged to them, according to the _ancient division_ of the... [ Continue Reading ]