Nehemiah 3:30

Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph, … piece R.V. portion. This particular mention of Hanun as -the sixth son" of Zalaph is noteworthy, since the mention of other names in this chapter is unaccompanied with any detail of description. It is not mentioned in Nehemiah 3:13, where Hanun's name first occurs; but in this passage it has the support of all the versions. If therefore the word is, as some suppose, a corruption for -and the inhabitants of Zanoah" (Nehemiah 3:13), or a numerical gloss that has accidentally found its way into the text, the error must have arisen in very early times.

Meshullam the son of Berechiah His name has occurred in Nehemiah 3:4 and it is strange that the words -another portion" are not added in connexion with this second mention of his work. We should naturally expect this tribute to be applied to him rather than to Hanun.

over against his chamber The word for -chamber" is an unusual form occurring elsewhere in the O.T. only in Nehemiah 12:44; Nehemiah 13:7 for the ordinary word occurring in Ezra 8:29, where see note. Perhaps it is used here to denote some official residence (LXX. γαζοφυλάκιον, Vulg. gazophylacium). The mention of Meshullam's -chamber" increases the probability that he was a priest of eminence, if, as the context somewhat suggests, -the chamber" was within the Temple precincts.