Matthew Henry on Nehemiah 3:1–end
The best way to know how to divide this chapter is to observe how the work was divided among the undertakers, that every one might know what he had to do, and mind it accordingly with a holy emulation, and desire to excel, yet without any contention, animosity, or separate interest. No strife appears among them but which should do most for the public good. Several things are observable in the account here given of the building of the wall about Jerusalem: -
I. That Eliashib the high priest, with his brethren the priests, led the van in this troop of builders, Neh 3:1. Ministers should be foremost in every good work; for their office obliges them to teach and quicken by their example, as wel…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Nehemiah 3:19
at the turning of the wall--that is, the wall across the Tyropœon, being a continuation of the first wall, connecting Mount Zion with the temple wall [BARCLAY].
Adam Clarke on Nehemiah 3:20
Earnestly repaired - He distinguished himself by his zeal and activity.
John Gill on Nehemiah 3:20
After him Baruch the son of Zabbai earnestly repaired the other piece,.... Towards and next to that Ezer the last builder mentioned had repaired; and this he did "earnestly", or in anger as the word signifies, being angry with himself or others that there was any backwardness shown to the work; and therefore, with all haste and eagerness imaginable, attended to it:
from the turning of the wall; see the preceding verse:
unto the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest; of whom see Nehemiah 3:1, now either his house was upon the wall, or that part of the wall that was right against the door of his house is here meant.
Keil & Delitzsch on Nehemiah 3:20-21
The wall from the angle to the place of the court of the prison by the king's upper house. - Neh 3:20 After him Baruch the son of Zabbai emulously repaired a second length of wall, from the angle to the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest. Bertheau objects to the reading החרה, and conjectures that it should be ההרה, "up the hill." But the reason he adduces, viz., that often as the word החזיק occurs in this description, a further definition is nowhere else added to it, speaks as much against, as for his proposed alteration; definitions of locality never, throughout the entire narrative, preceding החזיק, but uniformly standing after it, as also in the present verse. Certainly החרה ca…
