(12) And it came to pass, that when the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times, From all places whence ye shall return unto us they will be upon you. (13) Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall, and on the higher places, I even set the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows. (14) And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.

(15) And it came to pass, when our enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God had brought their counsel to nought, that we returned all of us to the

under armed Protection.

(21) So we laboured in the work: and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared. (22) Likewise at the same time said I unto the the people, Let every one with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, that in the night they may be a guard to us, and labour on the day. (23) So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard which followed me, none of us put off our clothes, saving

it came to pass from that time forth, that the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah. (17) They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. (18) For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his

(12) From all places.-The neighbouring Jews in their terror said by repeated messages "from all places 'Ye shall return to us,"": that is, for our protection.

(13) After their families.-In allusion to the ambushes of verse 11, Nehemiah set families togetherbesides the appointed guards-" in the lower places," where the wall was not raised to the due height, that is, really, "on the higher places," or rather, the bare places, whence enemies might be better seen. The lower were the "bare" places.

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(14) And I looked.-It appears that the energetic appeal now described was uttered on the actual approach of an attacking party.

(15) We returned. This verse remarkably condenses the frustration of the attempt and the cessation of the special guard.

(16) My servants.-The building was resumed with special precautions, very minutely described. "Nehemiah's own servants "" are distinguished from "all the house of Judah." The former were divided into two parties, one of which wrought on the work still unfinished and the other held their weapons.

Habergeons are coats of mail or corselets, thin plates of metal sewn upon leather.

The rulers were behind.-Ready to lead the defence, if necessary.

(17) They which builded.-Divided into masons and their burden-bearers. The latter held in one hand

CHAPTER V.-(1) And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews. (2) For there were that said, We, our sons, and our daughters, are many: therefore we take up corn for them, that we may eat, and live. (3) Some also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth. (4) There were also that said, We have borrowed

a weapon; the former built with both hands, and had their weapons at their side.

(21) So we laboured.-This is a general recapitulation, with additional note of the length of the day's work during this pressing season.

(23) Saving that every one put them off for washing. This rendering is very improbable, as the words are simply: "every man his weapon water." Some interpret that "each man's weapon was his water": evidently too subtle a turn of thought. It is best, on the whole, to supply the ellipsis : went with his weapon to the water."

V.

66

every man

(1-13) Internal difficulties, springing from usury and oppression.

(1) Their brethren the Jews.-Nehemiah's other troubles had come from the enemies without: he begins this account by laying emphasis on the hard treatment of Jews by Jews.

(2) We take up.-Let us receive. This is a general appeal for the governor's help.

(3) Because of the dearth.-Not any particular famine, strictly speaking, but their present hunger. The past mortgages had straitened their resources.

(4) We have borrowed money for the king's tribute.-Literally, we have made our fields and

money for the king's tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards. (5) Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought into bondage already: neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and vineyards.

vineyards answerable for the payment of the Persian tribute. They had pledged the coming produce.

(5) We bring into bondage. But the climax of the cry was the bondage of their children, especially of the daughters, whom they had been obliged to sell until the Jubile for money: children as precious to their parents as were the children of the rulers to them.

(6) And I was very angry.-Nehemiah, recently arrived, had not known this state of things. The common wailing and the three complaints in which it found expression are distinct.

(7) I consulted.-But he mastered himself, and studied his plan of operation. The matter was complicated, as the transgressors had violated rather the spirit than the letter of the law. Hence the rebuke, that they exacted usury each of his brother, failed in its object; and the governor called a general assembly, not "against them," but "concerning them."

(8) Will ye even sell your brethren -The appeal is a strong one. Nehemiah and his friends had redeemed Jews from the heathen with money; these men had caused Jews to be sold to Jews.

Nothing to answer. They might have replied had the letter of the law been urged; but this argument puts them to shame.

(9) Because of the reproach.-The text of another strong argument used in the assembly. We learn in chap. vi. how watchful the heathen were: all matters were reported to them, and every act of oppression would become a reproach against the God of the Jews. (10) Might exact.-We have lent them money and corn. By his own example the governor pleads with them not "let us leave off this usury," but let us all and together "remit the loans."

The Usurers make Restitution.

money and corn: I pray you, let us leave off this usury. (11) Restore, I pray you, Ι

to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their oliveyards, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them.

(12) Then said they, We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do as thou sayest. Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they should do according to this promise. (13) Also I shook my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour, that performeth not this promise, even thus be he shaken out, and emptied. And all the congregation said, Amen, and praised the LORD. And the people did according to this promise.

of

(14) Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even unto the two and thirtieth year Artaxerxes the king, that is, twelve years, I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the governor. (15) But the former governors that had been before

(11) Also the hundredth part of the money.— The monthly payment of one per cent. per month, twelve per cent. in the year, they were required to give up for the future.

(12) We will restore. The promise was given to restore the mortgaged property and to require no more interest. But Nehemiah required an oath to give legal validity to the procedure, and the priests' presence gave it the highest religious sanction.

(13) Shook my lap. This symbolical act imprecated on every man who broke this covenant an appropriate penalty: that he be emptied of all his possessions, even as the fold of Nehemiah's garment was emptied. And it is observable that the iniquity thus stopped is not referred to in the subsequent covenant (chap. x.), nor is it one of the offences which the governor found on his second return (chap. xiii.).

(14-19) Nehemiah's vindication of his own conduct.

(14) I was appointed.―That he appointed me, viz., Artaxerxes.

Twelve years.-The whole narrative, thus far, was written after his return from Jerusalem, and on a review of his governorship; hence, “their governor in the land of Judah." Of his second appointment the same thing might have been said: but that, at the time of writing, was in the future.

I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the governor.-At the close of the twelve years' term, Nehemiah could say that he and his official attendants had not drawn the customary allowances from the people.

(15) Besides forty shekels of silver.-Either in bread and wine over forty shekels, or, received in bread

therefore, and let us take counsel together. (8) Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart. (9) For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.

(10) Afterward I came unto the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up; and he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to slay thee; yea, in the night will they come to slay thee. (1) And I said, should such a man as I flee? and who is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in. (12) And, lo, I perceived that God had not sent him; but that he pronounced this prophecy against me: for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. (13) Therefore was he hired, that I should

Finally, the letter suggests the desirableness of friendly counsel to avert the danger.

(9) Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.-The answer sent was that the thing was not true, and that the report itself did not exist. The reflection in Nehemiah's journal was that they sought to make him afraid. Quoting this, he adds the prayer that he recorded when he wrote it. It is one of those sudden, interjectional petitions which abound in the narrative, and is all the more remarkable from the absence of the words "O God," which are here inserted.

(10) I came unto the house.-As a specimen of another kind of attack, through false prophets, Shemaiah's plot is mentioned. This man-probably a priest-Nehemiah found shut up in his house; probably he sent for the governor, and represented himself as being in danger from the common enemy. He predicted that on the night ensuing an attempt would be made on Nehemiah's life, and proposed that they should meet “within the Temple "—that is, in the holy place, between the Holiest and the outer court-for security.

(11) Should such a man as I flee? - First, the expression of personal dignity. Then of fear: "Who, being as I am" (a layman), "would go into the Temple to save his life?" Rather, and live? (Numb. xviii. 7).

(13) An evil report.-Nehemiah perceived that not God, but Shemaiah himself, had uttered the prophecy "against me," and that he was hired to bring the governor into discredit as a violator of law.

(14) Think thou upon Tobiah.-This appeal to God is to be understood as an official prophetic prayer. Nehemiah puts God's own cause into God's own hands. The mention of the name of Noadiah, nowhere else referred to, shows the circumstantial nature of the narrative, and is an indirect evidence of its truth.

(15, 16) The finishing of the wall is recorded in the simplest manner: first, with a formal specification of

Intrigues in Jerusalem.

be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me.

(14) My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear.

(15) So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days. (16) And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God.

(17) Moreover in those days the nobles. of Judah 'sent many letters unto Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came unto them. (18) For there were many in Judah sworn unto him, because he was the son in law of Shechaniah the son of Arah; and his son Johanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah.

the date and time; then in its effect upon the enemies, and as redounding to the glory of God.

(15) In fifty and two days.-The twenty-fifth day of Elul answers to about our September 15th; and, dating back, the wall began in the latter part of July, soon after Nehemiah's arrival. If we bear in mind that the wall was only partially overthrown, that the materials for restoration were at hand, and that the utmost skill had been shown in organising the bands of workmen, the time will not appear too short. There is no need to adopt the suggestion of Josephus, that the rebuilding occupied two years and four months.

They perceived that this work was wrought of our God.-Not miraculously, but under the Divine sanction and help. By this expression Nehemiah at once triumphs over his focs, and gives the glory where it was due. His own heroic part in the work is utterly forgotten.

(16) The enemies heard of it, and saw the result, and were ashamed.

(17-19) A supplementary account is here introduced, explaining the intrigues within Jerusalem to which reference has been made.

(17) Many letters.-There was a large correspondence between Tobiah and the nobles of Judah.

(18) Sworn unto him.-Shechaniah was of the family of Arah, which had come over with Zerubbabel (Ezra ii. 5). Tobiah had married his daughter, and Tobiah's son had married a daughter of Meshullam, one of the builders of the wall (chap. iii. 4, 30). This family connection led to a conspiracy by oath to thwart the governor. The names of Tobiah and his son are Hebrew; and it is probable that, though naturalise! Ammonites, they were of Hebrew extraction. This renders it easier to understand the facility with which the affinity was contracted.

(19) Also they reported his good deeds be- 1 or, matters. fore me, and uttered my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear.

2 Heb. broad in 8juices.

a Ezra 2. 1, &c.

CHAPTER VII.-(1) Now it came to pass, when the wall was built, and I had set up the doors, and the porters and the singers and the Levites were appointed, (2) that I gave my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the ruler of the palace, charge over Jerusalem: for he was a faithful man, and feared God above many. (3) And I said unto them, Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun be hot; and while they stand by, let them shut the doors, and bar them: and appoint watches of the inhabitants of Jeru- 3 Or, Seraiah. salem, every one in his watch, and every one to be over against his house. (4) Now the city was large and great: but the people were few therein, and the houses were not builded.

(5) And my God put into mine heart to gather together the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, that they might be reckoned by genealogy. And I found a register of the genealogy of them which came up at the first, and found written therein,

B.C. cir. 536.

4 Or, Bani.

(6) These are the children of the province, that went up out of the captivity, of those that had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and came again 5 or, Jora.

(19) Reported his good deeds.-Besides the correspondence thus carried on, these nobles strove to exalt the character of Tobiah to the governor, while they made the enemy acquainted with all that went on. This intelligence enabled him to write the disquieting letters which Nehemiah says he was in the habit of receiving.

VII.

(1-4) Measures were taken for the security of the city, now made a complete fortress. The comparative thinness of the population taxed the governor's resources, and the result appears at a later stage.

(1) Were appointed.-Placed in charge, probably over all the walls. This was an extraordinary provision, to be explained by the fact that these organised bodies formed a large proportion of the inhabitants. The Levites had usually guarded only the Temple.

(2) Hanani.-Who probably had returned from Susa with his brother.

Hananiah the ruler of the palace.-Commander of the fortress, as in chap. ii. 8. He was in the immediate service of the Persian king, but his chief recommendation was his piety, which distinguished him from too many of the other rulers.

committed to Hanani and Hananiah.

to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one unto his city; (7) who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, 3Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah. The number, I say, of the men of the people of Israel was this;

(8) The children of Parosh, two thousand an hundred seventy and two. (9) The children of Shephatiah, three hundred seventy and two. (10) The children of Arah, six hundred fifty and two. (11) The children of Pahath-moab, of the children of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand and eight hundred and eighteen. (12) The children of Elam, a thousand two hundred fifty and four. (13) The children of Zattu, eight hundred forty and five. (14) The children of Zaccai, seven hundred and three score. (15) The children of Binnui, six hundred forty and eight. (16) The children of Bebai, six hundred twenty and eight. (17) The children of Azgad, two thousand three hundred twenty and two. (18) The children of Adonikam, six hundred three score and seven. (19) The children of Bigvai, two thousand three score and seven. (20) The children of Adin, six hundred fifty and five. (21) The children of Ater of Hezekiah, ninety and eight. (22) The children of Hashum, three hundred twenty and eight. (23) The children of Bezai, three hundred twenty and four. (24) The children of 5 Hariph, an hundred