The Pulpit Commentary — Nehemiah — Section 62

of priests who afterwards signed the cove- my misconduct a. constant reproach to rno. nant (eh. x. 8); but the names in that list Nehemia.h's influence depended greatly on do not appear to be personal. There is a the weight of his moral character. Ono Shcm11i11h also among the priests who took false step, and he would have been lost • his part in tho dedication of the wall (eh. xii. influence would have been gone· and' the 42) ; ho is not s!Lid, however, to be "the work on which his heart was set w'.ould have son of Del!Liah." Shut up. Prevented, i. e., come to nought. by some legal impurity from taking part in Ver. 14. -Tobiah e.nd Sanballat. Seo tho temple servico, or even entering the ver. 12, with the comment. Tbe prophetess temple. In the houee of God, within the Noadiah is not elsewhere mentioned. She temple. Rather, "within the sanctuary." has been supposed to have succumbed to a The heykal was the same as the holy place, bribe, like Shemaiah (Ewald) ; but this is e.nd meant that part of the temple building wholly uncertain. We only know that, which intervened between the porch and the together with certain soi-disant prophet.,, holy of holies. It corresponded, as Gesenius she endeavoured to '' put Nehemiah in fear." observes, to the body or nave of modern It is clear that she was unsuccessful. cathedrals. Let ue shut the doors. Folding Ver. 15.-So the wall was finished in the doors of fir wood separated the holy place twenty and filth day of the month Elul, in from the porch in the temple of Solomon 11fty and two days. According to Josephus (1 Kings vi. 34) ; and these had no doubt (' Ant. Jud.,' xL 5, § 8), the work of restora- their counterpart in the restored temple. tion occupied two years and four months, or Shcmaiah suggested the shutting of these 840 days, instead of fifty-two. And this doors for greater security period has been tho~~ht so much more pro- Ver. 11. -Should such a man as I 11.ee 1 bable than the smaller one, that modems I. e. Should a man in my position, the head of generally have accepted it, while some have the state, bound to set an example to others, even proposed to alter our present text of fly from danger and bide myself? SuTely Nehemiah by the insertion of u-shnuthay,;m, not. And who is there, that, being e.e I "and two years," at the end of this vers~ am, would go into the temple to save his (Ewald). But the authority of Josephus on life 1 Rather, "could go into the temple matters of remote history is so small, ancl and live 1" Dean Stanley compares Becket's the whole account of Nehemiah is so har- noble words,-" I will not turn the cathedral monious and consistent with itself, that into a castle,"-but the parallel is not close. alteration seems quite unnecessary. N ehe- Nehemiah feels, not that he would profane miah leaves Susa in Nisan, probably towards the temple by making it into a place of the middle or close of the mon tb, for his refuge, but that he would break the law by preparations must have taken him some time. simply entering it. Ewald shows that he Re would be likely to be nearly three months has caught the point of the objection when on his journey, and would thus reach Jeru- he says, "Nehemiah thought that, as a salem about the middle of July-say July layman, he must not break the Divine com- 15. He then rested three days, surveyed mand by enterin the sanctuary itself" the wall, laid his plan before the nobles, (' History of Israel,9 vol. .v, p. 157). arranged the working parties, and set to Ver. 12.-And,lo, I perceived, &c. Rather, work. It was his object to hasten m[\tters " And I considered ; and lo I God had not as much as possible ; and he may well have sent him." I reflected on the whole matter, commenced the rebuilding within ten days and ea.me to the conclusion that, though he of his arrival. Fifty-two days from July 25 might be a prophet, he had not on this would bring him to Sept. 15, which corre- occasion exercised his prophetical office-he sponds, o.s nearly as may be, to the 25th of had not declared to me God's will (com- Elul. There is no difficulty in supposing pare the case of the " old prophet," 1 Kings that the wall could have been repaired in xiii. 11-18). And I was right, "for (in this spaco. The materials were ready at fact) he had pronounced thisprophecyagainst hand ; the working parties were numerous ; me, because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired the workmen full of zeal. If we estimate him." "Tobia.h and Sa.nballat" here-not the circumference of the wall at four miles, "Sanballa.t and Tobiah," as elsewhere (eh. which is probably beyond the truth, and the ii. 10, 19 ; iv. 7 ; vi. 1), because Tobiah wn.s working parties at forty-two (Ewald), it mll no doubt tho immediate briber, Sanballat follow that oach party had, on the average, merely furnishing the funds. to repair 168 yards, or at the rate of between Ver. 13.-Therefore was he hired, &c. three and four yards a day. There was pro- Their motive for bribing him was, that I· bably no work done on the sabbaths, an,i might be induced by fear to do as Shemaiah there may have been one or two days of suggested, and so to commit sin ; whereby interruption, when attack seemed imminent they would have 11 just ground for spreading (eh. iv. 13-15); but otherwise the work an evil report concerning mo, and m11king was carried on without pause from early dawn  64 THE DOOK OF NEHEMIAH. [cu. v1. 1-19.