Nisan was the name given by the Persian Jews to the month previously called “Abib,” the first month of the Jewish year, or that which followed the vernal equinox. It fell four months after Chisleu Nehemiah 1:1. THE TWENTIETH YEAR - As Artaxerxes ascended the throne in 465 B.C., his 20th year would... [ Continue Reading ]
I WAS VERY SORE AFRAID - A Persian subject was expected to be perfectly content so long as he had the happiness of being with his king. A request to quit the court was thus a serious matter.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CITY ... OF MY FATHERS’ SEPULCHRES - We may conclude from this that Nehemiah was of the tribe of Judah, as Eusebius and Jerome say that he was.... [ Continue Reading ]
I PRAYED TO THE GOD OF HEAVEN - Mentally and momentarily, before answering the king.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE QUEEN - Though the Persian kings practiced polygamy, they always had one chief wife, who alone was recognized as “queen.” The chief wife of Longimanus was Damaspia. I SET HIM A TIME - Nehemiah appears to have stayed at Jerusalem twelve years from his first arrival Nehemiah 5:14; but he can scar... [ Continue Reading ]
THE KING’S FOREST - Rather, park. The word used פרדס _pardês_; compare παράδεισος _paradeisos_, found only here, in Ecclesiastes 2:5, and in Song of Solomon 4:13), is of Persian, or at any rate of Aryan origin. The Persians signified by pariyadeza a walled enclosure, ornamented with trees, either... [ Continue Reading ]
The name Sanballat is probably Babylonian the first element being the same which commences “Sennacherib,” namely, “Sin,” the moon-God, and the second balatu, “eminent” (?),which is found in the Assyrian name, Bel-balatu. As a Horonite, he was probably a native of one of the Bethhorons, the upper or... [ Continue Reading ]
THE GATE OF THE VALLEY - A gate opening on the valley of Hinnom, which skirted Jerusalem to the west and south. The exact position is uncertain; as is also that of “the dragon well.” THE DUNG PORT - The gate by which offal and excrements were conveyed out of the city, and placed eastward of the val... [ Continue Reading ]
THE GATE OF THE FOUNTAIN - A gate on the eastern side of the Tyropoeon valley, not far from the pool of Siloam (probably “the king’s pool.” (Compare Nehemiah 3:15).... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BROOK - The Kidron watercourse, which skirted the city on the east. TURNED BACK - i. e. he turned westward, and having made the circuit of the city, re-entered by the valley-gate.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE RULERS - The principal authorities of the city, in the absence of the special governor. THE REST THAT DID THE WORK - i. e. “the laboring class that (afterward) actually built the wall.”... [ Continue Reading ]
THE KING’S WORDS - These have not been given; but the royal permission to restore the walls is implied in Nehemiah 2:5.... [ Continue Reading ]
GESHEM THE ARABIAN - The discovery that Sargon populated Samaria in part with an Arab colony explains why Arabs should have opposed the fortification of Jerusalem.... [ Continue Reading ]