Nehemiah 7:70
Ver. 70. And some of the chief of the fathers gave unto the work,.... Of building the city and the temple, and for that service, Ezr 2:68,
the Tirshatha gave to the treasure a thousand drachms of gold; each of which was one pound sterling, and so amounted to so many pounds: of these "dracmons", or "darics", a Persian coin, mention is made in Ezr 2:69, they were golden staters, or shekels and had their name as is said, not from Darius, the father of Xerxes, though it is certain, from Herodotus {d}, that he coined golden money; but from some other king of the same name, more ancient {e}, which must be Darius the Mede; and if they are the same with the Adarcon in Ezr 8:27 as they seem to be, then those in 1Ch 29:7 were pieces of money not so called in the times of David, but of Ezra, the writer of that book: whether this Tirshatha was Zerubbabel, or Nehemiah, is not easy to say, since this donation is not the same with that in Ezra, not made at the same time nor are the gifts the same, nor the persons that gave them. Zerubbabel was Tirshatha when the Jews came out of Babylon, and Nehemiah now:fifty basins; which were vessels, in the which the blood of the sacrifices was received and out of which it was sprinkled:five hundred and thirty priests' garments; which were laid up in the wardrobe, and used on occasion.{d} Melpomene, sive, l. 4. c. 166. {e} Scholiast. in Aristoph. Eccles. p. 741, 742. So Harpocration. Lexic. in voce dardikov, and Suidas on the same word. Nehemiah 7:71Ver. 71. And some of the chief of the fathers gave to the treasure of the work,.... To be put into the treasure, out of which the expenses of the temple, and service of it were defrayed:twenty thousand drachms of gold; which were so many pounds of our money, and somewhat more: for, according to Bishop Cumberland {f}, a drachm of gold was of the value of twenty shillings and four pence: and 2200 pounds of silver; "the maneh", or pound, with the Jews, was of the value of sixty shekels, Eze 45:12 and so is reckoned by our Brerewood {g} to be of our money seven pounds and ten shillings; he reckoning a shekel at half a crown, whereas it was little more than two shillings and four pence; and so sixty of them, or a "maneh", came to about seven pounds; wherefore this sum here was seven times so many pounds of silver.{f} Scripture Weights and Measures, ch. 4. p. 115. {g} De Ponder & Pret. Vet. Num. c. 4. Nehemiah 7:72Ver. 72. And that which the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand drachms of gold,.... Worth as many pounds of our money, and somewhat more:and two thousand pound of silver; of which See Gill on "Ne 7:71":and threescore and seven priests' garments; having been so long in Babylon, and no use of sacrifices, and so not of garments to minister in, no care was taken to provide any; which seems to be the reason why so many were given, when they returned to their own land, and sacrificed. Nehemiah 7:73Ver. 73. So the priests and the Levites, and the porters, and the singers, and some of the people, and the Nethinims, and all Israel, dwelt in their cities,.... The same is said in Ezr 2:70,See Gill on "Ezr 2:70",and, when the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their cities; the month Tisri, answering to part of September, in which month was the feast of tabernacles; at this time of the year they were in their cities when they came forth out of Babylon, and so they were now; see Ezr 3:1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.