Bible Commentaries
Nehemiah 3

Verses 1-32

The Work on the Wall (3:1-32)

Chapter 3 records the work parties and the portions of wall or gate assigned to each. It moves in regular fashion around the wall, the "Sheep Gate" serving as point of origin. For the various geographical locations a Bible dictionary should be consulted. The expression "who were under the jurisdiction" is an attempt to make sense of a difficult phrase; another possibility would be that the phrase refers to the locality where the labor was carried on (as vs. 8 and others). The marginal reading of verse 9 is probably correct (see also vs. 18). Verse 12 has a surprising reference to "daughters" participating in the work, although it is not entirely unexpected that women would have taken a share. Another difficult verse is 19, the translation representing at best a guess, as is true of verse 25. The mass of detail and the confusion of names should not blind the Bible student to the fact that here were real people going about a difficult work under adverse conditions and doing so because of their conviction that God had so willed and that his blessing was upon their labor.