Matthew Henry on Nehemiah 2:9–end
We are here told,
I. Now Nehemiah was dismissed by the court he was sent from. The king appointed captains of the army and horsemen to go with him (Neh 2:9), both for his guard and to show that he was a man whom the king did delight to honour, that all the king's servants might respect him accordingly. Those whom the King of kings sends he thus protects, he thus dignifies with a host of angels to attend them.
II. How he was received by the country he was sent to.
1. By the Jews and their friends at Jerusalem. We are told,
(1.) That while he concealed his errand they took little notice of him. He was at Jerusalem three days (Neh 2:11), and it does not appear that any of the great men of the c…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Nehemiah 2:14
Then--that is, after having passed through the gate of the Essenes.
I went on to the gate of the fountain--that is, Siloah, from which turning round the fount of Ophel.
to the king's pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass--that is, by the sides of this pool (Solomon's) there being water in the pool, and too much rubbish about it to permit the passage of the beast.
Adam Clarke on Nehemiah 2:14
The gate of the fountain - Of Siloah.
The king's pool - Probably the aqueduct made by Hezekiah, to bring the waters of Gihon to the city of David. See Ch2 32:30.
John Gill on Nehemiah 2:14
Then I went on to the pool of the fountain, and to the king's pool..... That led to the fountain Siloah or Gihon, so called; it was the way to the potter's field, to Bethlehem, Hebron, Gaza, and Egypt. Rauwolff says (t) there is still standing on the outside of the valley Tyropaeum (which distinguishes the two mountains Zion and Moriah) the gate of the fountain, which hath its name, because it leadeth towards the fountain of Siloah, called the king's pool:
but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass; because of the heaps of rubbish that lay there.
(t) Travels, par. 3. c. 3. p. 227.
