Nehemiahchapter 3
32 verses · BSBNehemiah book hub →
Speaks with:Nehemiah 3×18Nehemiah 12×10Nehemiah 10×6Ezra 2×4Nehemiah 7×3Nehemiah 8×3
Summary
Chapter summary
The builders' roll: the whole circuit of the wall assigned name by name and gate by gate. Eliashib the high priest and his brethren begin with the sheep gate and sanctify it; from there the list runs to the fish gate, the old gate, the valley gate, the dung gate, the fountain gate by the king's garden, the water gate, the horse gate, and the gate of Hammiphkad. Goldsmiths, apothecaries, merchants, rulers of half-districts, and the daughters of Shallum each take a portion, many repairing 'over against his house.' One sour note in the chapter: the nobles of the Tekoites 'put not their necks to the work of their lord.'
Context
History · Nehemiah — Nehemiah overview
- A. 1–14 Sheep gate to dung gate: priests, goldsmiths, and rulers at work
- B. 15–32 Around to the corner, every man building before his own house
The outline
A.Sheep gate to dung gate: priests, goldsmiths, and rulers at workvv. 1 to 14
Read vv. 1 to 14 →B.Around to the corner, every man building before his own housevv. 15 to 32
Read vv. 15 to 32 →
The world behind this chapter
Nehemiah 3The history
This chapter is a work roster written as a walk around the city. It moves counter-clockwise from the Sheep Gate near the temple, naming gate after gate — Fish, Old, Valley, Dung, Fountain, Water, Horse, East, and the gate Miphkad — and the tower of the furnaces, the tower of Hananeel, the pool of Siloah, the king's garden, the stairs that go down from the city of David.
The work was organised by group rather than by trade. Priests build the Sheep Gate. Goldsmiths and perfumers work on a stretch. Merchants take a section. Men repair the piece in front of their own houses, which is the oldest trick in civic construction and the reason a lot of it got done.
Excavation on the eastern slope of the old city has turned up wall construction from this general period on the ridge above the earlier ruins, on a tighter line than the pre-exilic city — consistent with a smaller, poorer town rebuilding fast on what it could hold.
What it meant to them
Two details give the chapter its human edge. The nobles of Tekoa "put not their necks to the work of their Lord" — the one recorded group of refusers, and their town's ordinary men are named twice for doing double duty. And Shallum's daughters are named as builders.
For a people whose recent history was a list of things taken from them, this is a list of things they made. It is the least quotable chapter in Nehemiah and the reason the rest of the book happens.
Sources cited
- K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
- Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament (public domain)
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (Whiston translation)
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Nehemiah 3. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.