Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Nehemiah 1:3
And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province [are] in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also [is] broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
The attempt to rebuild the wall in the time of the Pseudo-Smerdis Ezr 4:12-24 had been stopped. It still remained in ruins. The Assyrian sculptures show that it was the usual practice to burn the gates.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 3. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down] This must refer to the walls, which had been rebuilt after the people returned from their captivity: for it could not refer to the walls which were broken down and levelled with the dust by Nebuchadnezzar; for to hear of this could be no news to Nehemiah.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In the province, i.e. in Judea, which was now made a province under the Persian monarchs: See Poole “Ezr 5:8“.
In great affliction and reproach; despised and distressed by the neighbouring nations.
The wall is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned, i.e. the walls and gates continue in the same woeful plight in which Nebuchadnezzar left them; the Jews not being yet in a condition to rebuild them, nor having commission from the kings of Persia to do so, but only to build the temple and their own private houses. And this made their enemies scorn them; who also would have ruined them, but for fear of offending the Persian king.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And they said unto me, the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province,…. In Judea, now reduced to a province of the Persian empire:
are in great affliction and reproach; harassed and distressed, calumniated and vilified, by their enemies the Samaritans:
the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire; that is, its wall and gates were in the same condition in which Nebuchadnezzar had left them, for since his times as yet they had never been set up; for this is not to be understood of what was lately done by their adversaries, which is not at all probable.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(3) And they said.Nehemiahs question and his friends answer refer first to the people and then to the city. As to the former the terms used have a deep pathos. Those who had returned to their countrynow only the provinceare, in the question, the Jews that had escaped; in the answer they are the Remnant that are left: both being from the captivity.
In great affliction and reproach.In distress because of the contempt of the people around. All these expressions are familiar in the prophets; but they are united here in a peculiar and affecting combination. As to the city, the report is that the walls were still broken down: lying prostrate, with partial exceptions, as Nebuchadnezzar left them a hundred and forty-two years before (2Ki. 25:10), and, moreover, what had not been recorded, the gates thereof burned with fire. Though the Temple had been rebuilt, there is no valid reason for supposing that. the walls of the city had been in part restored and again demolished.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. There in the province The province of Judea. Comp. Ezr 5:8.
In great affliction and reproach From the time of the arrival there of Zerubbabel and the first body of exiles until this date, the returned Jews had been vexed and troubled by neighbouring enemies the descendants of the nations whom the eastern kings had settled in the cities of Samaria.
And though by the favour of the Persian kings they had succeeded in rebuilding the temple, they were still in a comparatively weak and helpless state, and their now implacable enemies, the Samaritans, would naturally take every opportunity that offered to trouble and distress them.
The wall broken down, and the gates burned This partly explains their affliction and reproach. The returned exiles had never been able to rebuild the walls and gates of their loved city; and because they still remained in the ruined condition to which the Chaldean army had reduced them more than a century before, (2Ki 25:9-10,) it was a standing affliction and reproach to the Jews.
Some critics aver that this ruinous state of the wall and gates of Jerusalem must have been caused by some recent calamity probably by those neighbouring heathen tribes whose daughters had been married to certain Jews, but had been lately put away by Ezra’s legislation, as described in Ezra 10. They urge that the destruction effected by Nebuchadnezzar’s army more than a hundred years before could have been no news to Nehemiah. But this, like the position of these same critics on the passage in Ezr 4:6-23, (where see notes,) lacks support in the Scripture history. If the walls of Jerusalem had ever been rebuilt since their destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, it is strange that no mention of it occurs in these histories. Their rebuilding by Nehemiah was considered of such importance that a considerable portion of this book is given to a description of it, and any previous work of the kind must have been of sufficient importance to demand, at least, a passing notice. But no such notice is found. The complaint of the Jews’ enemies in Ezr 4:12-16, that the returned exiles were building up the walls of the city, was, as we have shown in the notes there, a crafty misrepresentation, a perversion of the truth, for they were rebuilding the temple, not the city. A work of such importance as the rebuilding of the walls and gates of Jerusalem needs stronger evidence than that letter of the enemies of Judah, so manifestly given to misrepresentation, as the whole context shows.
It may not have been positively news to Nehemiah to be told that the walls and gates of Jerusalem were broken down and destroyed, but this fact was mentioned as showing the great cause or occasion of the affliction and reproach of the Jews at Jerusalem, and seems to have first suggested to Nehemiah the importance of having those walls and gates rebuilt. A work of such magnitude as the rebuilding of that ancient city, and especially of its defences, could not have been undertaken without express permission from the king, and no such permit had ever yet been granted since its destruction by the king of Babylon. The proclamations of Cyrus and Darius authorized only the rebuilding of the temple, and that any thing more than this had yet been attempted by the Jews is without proof.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Neh 1:3. The wallalso is broken down, &c. The commissions which had hitherto been granted to the Jews were supposed to extend no further than to the rebuilding of the temple, and their own private houses; and therefore the walls and gates of the city lay in the same ruinous condition in which the Chaldeans left them after that devastation.
REFLECTIONS.Nehemiah, though nobly advanced at court, and honoured with a mansion in the palace of Shushan, still bore in his heart the welfare of Zion, and still preferred Jerusalem’s prosperity before his chief joy. Note; God has sometimes his friends even in the palace; and, though a court is usually a soil too unfavourable to religious concerns, he had monuments of grace even in Nero’s houshold.
1. Nehemiah, on the visit of some of his brethren to Babylon, probably to solicit some favour in behalf of the Jews, earnestly inquires after Jerusalem, and the returned captives who dwelt in it; but receives an afflicting narrative of their wretched situation: the city lying in its desolations, and the people under distress, insulted, oppressed, and reproached by their more powerful neighbours. Note; (1.) We must not, in our advancement, forget ourselves, and grow strange to our brethren because they may be poor or afflicted. (2.) The persecution of God’s people, which discourages the unfaithful, awakens the greater zeal and concern of such as are true-hearted.
2. The melancholy account affected the good Nehemiah: the tears ran down his cheeks; and, in affliction, four days he fasted and prayed before the God of heaven, that he would remember their misery, and return to them in mercy. Note; (1.) In seasons of public or private calamities, fasting and weeping should accompany our prayers. (2.) It is a relief to the oppression of our own spirit, when with tears we can pour our complaints into the bosom of a compassionate God. (3.) While we have a God in heaven to go to, our deeper distresses are not desperate.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
(3) And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. (4) And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,
This was a melancholy account of God’s heritage. One should have thought that when the captivity was over, and the Lord had brought home his chosen, prosperity would have followed. Reader! mark it down. Jesus’s people are to have tribulation in the world. And hereby indeed they will better know how to value his peace; In me ye shall have peace. Yes, blessed Lord! it is in thee; not from thee only, but in thee also. Joh 16:33 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Neh 1:3 And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province [are] in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also [is] broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
Ver. 3. Are in great affliction and reproach ] The Church is heir of the cross, saith Luther, Ecclesia est haeres crucis, and it was ever the portion of God’s people to be reproached, as David was by Doeg with devouring words, Psa 52:1 . Their breath as fire shall devour you, Isa 33:11 .
The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down
And the gates thereof are burnt with fire
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
they said: that which could not have been said if Ezra and his thousands had been already there.
The remnant. For the history of this “remnant” see Jer 40:44. Only a few poor serfs there (Jer 52:15, Jer 52:16).
left. Not carried away or returned (Jer 52:15, Jer 52:16).
Province = Judah. See Ezr 5:8.
broken down. Just as left by Nebuchadnezzar (2Ki 25:9, 2Ki 25:10. Jer 52:12-14. For the subsequent history see Jeremiah Chapters 40-44.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Neh 1:3
Neh 1:3
A SUMMARY OF THE BAD NEWS
“And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.”
“The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down” (Neh 1:3). This should not be read as meaning that the breaking down of the wall had happened only recently. At this point in history, the wall had never been rebuilt since Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed it. There had indeed been an effort by the Jews to rebuild the wall, somewhat earlier in the reign of this same Artaxerxes I; but that had been totally frustrated by the hatred of Rehum and Shimshai the deputy rulers beyond the River; and in Ezr 4:17-22, we have the record of how the enemies of Israel had forcefully stopped all such efforts to rebuild the city. (See my discussion of this in Ezra 4.)
E.M. Zerr:
Neh 1:3. The report given to Nehemiah was very disheartening. Mention was made of the condition of the walls. In the time of Zerubbabel (Ezr 4:12) we read that the walls were set up, having been thrown down prior to that, and the present account sounds as if the condition had just been made known. But we should remember that the time of Zerubbabel was almost a century before this experience of Nehemiah, and in that period they had again been let fall into decay. In those times of almost constant difficulties with neighboring governments, a wall about a city was of utmost importance. That is why there is such frequent mention of fenced (walled) cities. We may well understand, then, why Nehemiah was so affected by the report.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
the province: Neh 7:6, Neh 11:3, Ezr 2:1, Ezr 5:8, Est 1:1
in great: Neh 9:36, Neh 9:37, Psa 44:11-14, Psa 137:1-3, Isa 32:9-14, Lam 1:7, Lam 3:61, Lam 5:1
reproach: 1Ki 9:7, Psa 79:4, Isa 43:28, Jer 24:9, Jer 29:18, Jer 42:18, Jer 44:8-12
the wall: Neh 2:17, 2Ki 25:10, Isa 5:5, Isa 64:10, Isa 64:11, Jer 5:10, Jer 39:8, Jer 52:14
Reciprocal: Deu 4:27 – General 1Sa 4:13 – his heart Ezr 4:12 – set up Neh 2:3 – the city Neh 2:13 – the walls Job 19:5 – plead Psa 74:3 – the perpetual Psa 102:14 – General Isa 30:17 – till ye Isa 44:26 – and I will Lam 2:9 – gates Heb 13:3 – which suffer
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Neh 1:3. They said, The remnant that are left in the province In Judea, which was now made a province under the Persian kings; are in great affliction and reproach Despised and distressed by the neighbouring nations. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, &c. The walls and gates continue as the Chaldeans left them after their conquest of the city, the Jews not being in a condition to rebuild them, nor having commission from the kings of Persia to do so, but only to build the temple, and their own private houses. This made their condition both very despicable, under the abiding marks of poverty and slavery, and very dangerous, for their enemies might, when they pleased, make an easy prey of them.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1:3 And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the {c} province [are] in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also [is] broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
(c) Meaning in Judea.