Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Nehemiah 3:32
And between the going up of the corner unto the sheep gate repaired the goldsmiths and the merchants.
32. the going up, &c.] see Neh 3:31.
unto the sheep gate ] R.V. and the sheep gate. This was the starting place of the description ( Neh 3:1).
the goldsmiths ] see Neh 3:8-31.
the merchants ] see Neh 3:31.
The proximity of their work of restoration suggests that both goldsmiths and merchants represented communities largely and closely interested in the transactions connected with Temple offerings. For, apart from the supply and repair of vessels, furniture, and dress, required for the daily ministration, the dedication of precious things would create a constant traffic close to the Temple. The merchants would establish themselves at the main approaches to the Temple and expose their wares to the throngs of worshippers and sacrificers who collected about this spot.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 32. The goldsmiths and the merchants.] The word hatstsorephim may signify smiths, or persons who worked in metals of any kind; but it is generally understood to mean those who worked in gold. I have already observed, that the mention of merchants and goldsmiths shows that these persons were formed into bodies corporate in those ancient times. But these terms are differently rendered in the versions. The Vulgate is the same as ours, which probably our translators copied: aurifices et negociatores. The Syriac is, goldsmiths and druggists. The Arabic, smelters of metal and porters. The Septuagint, in some copies, particularly in the Roman edition, and in the Complutensian, Antwerp, and Paris Polyglots, have , smiths and merchants; but in other copies, particularly the London Polyglot, for we find seller of shields. And here the learned reader will find a double mistake in the London Polyglot, for , and in the Latin version scruta for scuta, neither of which conveys any sense.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And between the going up of the corner unto the sheep gate,…. Where the building first began and where it now ended:
repaired the goldsmiths and the merchants; or druggists; which was done at their expense; and so the wall all round, with the gates of it, were rebuilt and repaired, which was all done in fifty two days, Ne 6:15.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(32) Unto the sheep gate.It appears that the goldsmiths and the merchants undertook the small space necessary to complete the circuit.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
32. The corner unto the sheep gate That is, from the southeast corner of the outer wall northward to the point whence the writer’s description started. Neh 3:1. Thus the description of the rebuilding of the walls has passed entirely round the city, and also noticed the repairing of inner walls which separated one part of the city from the other. The last section was repaired by the goldsmiths and the merchants, probably because they had their dwellings and business in this quarter of the city.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And between the ascent of the corner and the sheep gate repaired the goldsmiths and the merchants.’
In Neh 3:1 the description of the building works had commenced with the building of the Sheep Gate in the northern wall by the priests. Now the final section of the building work, that between the north east corner and the Sheep Gate, is described. This involved the activity of the goldsmiths and the merchants, probably because they had a thriving religious market in that area connected with the Temple. Thus the goldsmiths and merchants worked on the wall side by side with the priests (Neh 3:1). It was an indication of the unity of purpose of all God’s people, both spiritual and secular, as they worked together on the wall.
But it is also a vivid reminder of how Temple worship and purity was always in danger of becoming mixed up with, and polluted by, secular greed, something which had clearly been in Zechariah’s mind in Zec 14:21, where some decades previously he had declared that in the coming age ‘there shall no more be a trafficker in the house of YHWH of Hosts’. It was a theme which Jesus took up when He ‘cleansed’ the Temple and declared, ‘do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise’ (Joh 2:16). This was what they were in grave danger doing. It can also become a great danger for us.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
REFLECTIONS
I HOPE the Reader will not peruse this chapter, without gleaning much improvement from it, though the subject relates to nothing more interesting than the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem. But in the repairing the walls of Jerusalem, we must look beyond the mere letter of the word, and consider that Jerusalem is the city of the great King, and the people of it the nation whom God hath taken into covenant with himself. Were the walls of Jerusalem laid waste? Did the enemy enter in by her gates? Was she carried into captivity by the foe? Yes! all this was done. But by whom was it done, and for what cause? The prophet hath answered; He that scattereth Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock. Doth the enemy say, Is this Zion, whom no man looketh after? Let them know that the Lord doth look after Zion, and will comfort her waste places. For he hath said, I will make you a praise among all people of the earth, when I have turned back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord.
But sweet as these considerations are, in reference to the Lord’s mercy manifested to Israel of old, how infinitely more interesting do they become, if viewed through the gospel medium, and having their accomplishment in the recovery from the captivity of sin and Satan, the rebuilding the walls of the church of Jesus, and the bringing home the redeemed of the Lord to Zion, with songs of everlasting joy upon their head. Here the subject riseth to an higher degree of sublimity; and we may behold the several worthies in this chapter, headed by their high-priests, as the representatives of the church of Jesus, following the great and glorious High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, emerging out of all the ruins of the fall, and forming an holy temple to the Lord, through the Spirit. Even in the present day of grace, and beheld only with an eye to the recovery from the powers of darkness, and the dominion of sin in this life, the subject becomes beautiful and interesting. But looking forward to the eventual redemption from everlasting misery in the world to come, nothing can be more animating, nor delightful. Here it is the promise of God, by his prophet, receives its full accomplishment. In Jesus, and his finished redemption, when the Lord hath builded Zion, and made his glory to appear, Jehovah will indeed make every child of Jesus a praise among all people of the earth, in having forever turned back their captivity, and put a final close to all the oppressions the Israel of God hath sustained from all the enemies of her salvation, forevermore.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Neh 3:32 And between the going up of the corner unto the sheep gate repaired the goldsmiths and the merchants.
Ver. 32. Unto the sheep gate ] Here they began and here they end, having repaired round, and thereby obtained a good report, being here registered and renowned. Those that have a hand in building the spiritual Jerusalem shall be surely crowned and chronicled. Their names shall be written in the book of life, where no devil can scrape them out. Up, therefore, and be doing worthily in Ephratah, that ye may be famous in Bethlehem, Rth 4:11 . “To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, shall be eternal life,” Rom 2:7 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
And. This is reckoned in the Massorah as the middle verse of the 685 verses of the whole book “Ezra-Nehemiah”, showing that the two books were one.
sheep gate. See App-59. The work thus ended where it had been begun. Compare Neh 3:1.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the sheep gate: Thus the whole city was surrounded with a wall; for Eliashib began at the sheep gate. Neh 3:1, Neh 12:39, Joh 5:2
the goldsmiths: The word tzeraphim may denote smiths, or refiners, or persons that worked in metals of any kind; but it is generally understood of those who worked in gold. From the remotest period of the history of the Jews, they had artists in all the elegant and ornamental trades; and it appears that goldsmiths, apothecaries, and merchants were formed into companies in the time of Nehemiah. Neh 3:8, Neh 3:31
Reciprocal: 2Ch 26:9 – the valley gate Zep 1:11 – all the
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Neh 3:32. The going up unto the sheep-gate There they began, and there they ended, which shows that they left not off till they had compassed the whole city with a wall. No man can think, (as Pellicanus observes,) that the names of them who repaired the walls of Jerusalem were set down so diligently as here they are, without some rational cause for it. And the reason was, because it was a work of great virtue, to love and to do honour to their country; a work of piety, to restore the holy city; a religious conduct, to defend the true worshippers of God, that they might serve him in quietness and safety; and a courageous behaviour, in the midst of so many enemies, to go on with this work in a pious confidence of the power of God to support them. The names, therefore, of such persons deserved to be preserved and transmitted to future generations, as a most noble example to them.