THE Preacher's Complete Homiletical COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT (ON AN ORIGINAL PLAN). With Critical and Explanatory Notes, Endices, &c., &c. BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. New York FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY LONDON AND TORONTO 1892 A HOMILETICAL COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH. (CHAPTERS VII. TO XIII.) BY REV. W. H. BOOTH, REV. J. H. GOODMAN, AND REV. S. GREGORY. New York FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY LONDON AND TORONTO HOMILETIC COMMENTARY ON NEHEMIAH. CHAPTER VII. EXPLANATORY NOTES.] "The second section of this book (chaps. vii.—xii. 43) furnishes a description of the further efforts of Nehemiah to increase and insure the prosperity of the community in Judah and Jerusalem: first, by securing Jerusalem from hostile attacks; then, by seeking to increase the population of the city; and, lastly, by endeavouring to bring the domestic and civil life of the people into conformity with the precepts of the law, and thus to furnish the necessary moral and religions basis for the due development of the covenant people."-Keil. It is generally supposed that Nehemiah's return to Persia must be inserted after xii, 43; the remainder of the book narrating his later reforms. Bishop Hervey, however, suggests that the work stopped immediately after the events narrated in vi. 16-19, and that chapter vii. goes on to relate the measures adopted by Nehemiah upon his return with fresh powers. 1-3. The watching of the city provided for. 1. Porters... singers... Levites were appointed] In olden time each had a separate work. The porters guarded the gates of the temple. They were reckoned by genealogies, and separated into various divisions (see 1 Chron. ix. 17-27; xxvi. 1—19). The singers had charge of the service of song (1 Chron. vi. 31), and "their brethren the Levites were appointed unto all manner of service of the tabernacle of the house of God" (1 Chron. vi. 48). "Under the present extraordinary circumstances Nehemiah committed also to these two organized corporations the task of keeping watch over the walls and gates of the city, and placed them under the command of his brother Hanani and of Hananiah, the ruler of the citadel. This is expressed by the words (ver. 2), 'I gave Hanani... and Hananiah. . . charge over Jerusalem.'"-Keil. 2. The ruler of the palace] The marshal or chamberlain of the vice-regal court which Nehemiah had maintained in Jerusalem.—Jamieson. 3. Let not the gates be opened until the sun be hot] In the East it is customary to open the gates of a city at sunrise, and to bar them at sunset—a rule which is very rarely, and not except to |