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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
3:1-7:4 The Wall Is Built, Despite Difficulties. This section records the building and repairing of the walls by all the people of Judah, despite the efforts of certain groups to stop them. Excavations on the Ophel hill of Jerusalem have uncovered remains of Nehemiah's wall system. This wall system apparently incorporated walls from previous ages. It was not strongly built, and it reflects Jerusalem's diminutive size at the time (see illustration).
3:1-32 The People Work Systematically on the Walls. The building work is described, and the workers are named, section by section. The point of this account is to show that the people as a whole responded to Nehemiah's challenge and believed that God would give them success. The description of the work demonstrates the concerted effort of the people.
3:1-2 Eliashib the high priest was the grandson of Jeshua, the priest in Zerubbabel's time (see 12:10; Ezra 5:2). with his brothers. The work was allocated to groups within the community, identified mainly by family and sometimes by where they lived. It began and ended at the Sheep Gate, on the northern side of the city (Neh. 3:32; see map). This was near the temple, and possibly was so named because sheep were brought through it for sacrifice (see also John 5:2). It may also be why the priests worked here, and why they consecrated the gate. The direction of the work on the wall was counterclockwise. Tower of the Hundred. See note on Neh. 2:7-8. The precise line of the walls followed by Nehemiah cannot be completely reconstructed. Regarding many of the features mentioned, little is known.
3:3 The Fish Gate may have been at the northwest corner.
3:4 repaired. The work is sometimes "building" and sometimes "repairing," suggesting that the parts of the walls were in various states of dilapidation.
3:5 the Tekoites . . . their nobles. The leading people of Tekoa, not far south of Jerusalem, may have resented Nehemiah's leadership. The Hebrew translated their Lord has the form of a plural (see ESV footnote), but the plural form is often used to express respect to a single master: for this construction in relation to God, see 8:10; 10:29; cf. Deut. 10:17 ("Lord of lords"); Ps. 8:1; 135:5; 136:3; in relation to a man, see Gen. 42:33; Judg. 3:25. In view of the use in Nehemiah, this probably refers to God; but perhaps the form, which could refer to Nehemiah, is used to convey the notion that one properly serves God by obeying Nehemiah.
3:7 Mizpah was an important administrative center after the fall of Jerusalem (Jer. 41:1). Apparently the Samarian governor of Beyond the River continued to hold sessions there.
3:8 goldsmiths . . . perfumers. Many workers in the community were organized in guilds. The Broad Wall enclosed part of the western city (some of which has been excavated).
3:9 ruler of half the district of Jerusalem. Similar expressions occur six times in vv. 12-18, referring to an administrative system that divided the province into perhaps six sections.
3:13 Valley Gate . . . Dung Gate. See note on 2:13-15; and map. a thousand cubits. About
3:15 Fountain Gate. See note on 2:13-15. city of David. The part of the city originally occupied by David, extending south of what is now the Temple Mount.
3:16 On the eastern side of the city, Nehemiah has to build a new line of wall, rather than simply repair the old one, because the preexilic wall was so badly destroyed here. The line of the new wall is now described in relation to a variety of features of the city, most of which can no longer be certainly located. It is positioned higher up the slope of the Kidron Valley than the old one. After him. The regular way of describing each successive group of builders in this section. Nehemiah the son of Azbuk. This is a different Nehemiah, of course. ruler of half the district. See note on v. 9.
3:23 opposite their house. This shows one factor in deciding who would build each section (see also vv. 28-29).
3:26 temple servants. See note on Ezra 2:43-54. Ophel. A name for the whole southeastern hill. The Water Gate, in the old wall, had probably opened onto the Gihon Spring, the main water source outside the city wall.
3:29 The East Gate may have been a gate into the temple rather than a gate in the wall.
