Nehemiah 3: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter lists, section by section, the people who rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem and its gates. The record moves around the wall in order, naming priests, rulers of districts, family groups, workers from nearby towns, goldsmiths, perfume makers, merchants, and temple servants, and it marks where some of the stretches of wall began and ended. It also notes that many people repaired the part of the wall closest to their own house, and that the nobles of Tekoa would not join the work.

Claim by Claim

1. 3:1
   • Eliashib the high priest rose up together with his fellow priests.
   • Eliashib and the priests built the sheep gate.
   • They consecrated the sheep gate.
   • They set up the doors of the sheep gate.
   • They consecrated the wall as far as the tower of the Hundred and as far as the tower of Hananel.
2. 3:2
   • The men of Jericho built the section next to Eliashib.
   • Zaccur son of Imri built the section next to the men of Jericho.
3. 3:3
   • The sons of Hassenaah built the fish gate.
   • They laid its beams.
   • They set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars.
4. 3:4
   • Meremoth son of Urijah son of Koz repaired the section next to them.
   • Meshullam son of Berechiah son of Meshezabeel repaired the section next to him.
   • Zadok son of Baana repaired the section next to him.
5. 3:5
   • The Tekoites repaired the section next to them.
   • The nobles of the Tekoites did not put their necks to the work.
   • The work is described as the work of their lord, which may mean their overseers or the LORD.
6. 3:6
   • Jehoiada son of Paseah and Meshullam son of Besodeiah repaired the old gate.
   • They laid its beams.
   • They set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars.
7. 3:7
   • Melatiah the Gibeonite, Jadon the Meronothite, and the men of Gibeon and Mizpah made repairs next to them.
   • Their section extended to the seat of the governor of the region beyond the River, or else they belonged to the jurisdiction of that governor.
8. 3:8
   • Uzziel son of Harhaiah, one of the goldsmiths, repaired the section next to him.
   • Hananiah, a son of the perfumers, repaired the section next to him.
   • They restored Jerusalem as far as the broad wall.
9. 3:9
   • Rephaiah son of Hur, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired the section next to them.
10. 3:10
    • Jedaiah son of Harumaph repaired the section next to them.
    • Jedaiah's section was opposite his own house.
    • Hattush son of Hashabniah repaired the section next to him.
11. 3:11
    • Malchijah son of Harim and Hashub son of Pahath-moab repaired another section.
    • They also repaired the tower of the ovens.
12. 3:12
    • Shallum son of Halohesh, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, repaired the section next to him.
    • Shallum repaired it together with his daughters.
13. 3:13
    • Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired the valley gate.
    • They built the valley gate.
    • They set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars.
    • They repaired a thousand cubits of the wall as far as the dung gate.
14. 3:14
    • Malchiah son of Rechab, ruler of the district of Beth-haccerem, repaired the dung gate.
    • He built the dung gate.
    • He set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars.
15. 3:15
    • Shallun son of Colhozeh, ruler of the district of Mizpah, repaired the gate of the fountain.
    • He built the gate of the fountain.
    • He roofed it over.
    • He set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars.
    • He repaired the wall of the pool of Shelah by the king's garden.
    • His work extended to the stairs that go down from the city of David.
16. 3:16
    • Nehemiah son of Azbuk, ruler of half the district of Beth-zur, made repairs after him.
    • His section reached the place opposite the tombs of David.
    • His section reached the pool that had been made.
    • His section reached the house of the mighty men.
17. 3:17
    • The Levites made repairs after him under Rehum son of Bani.
    • Hashabiah, ruler of half the district of Keilah, made repairs next to him.
    • Hashabiah made repairs on behalf of his district.
18. 3:18
    • Their fellow Levites made repairs after him under Bavai son of Henadad.
    • Bavai was ruler of half the district of Keilah.
19. 3:19
    • Ezer son of Jeshua, ruler of Mizpah, repaired another section next to him.
    • That section was opposite the ascent to the armoury at the angle of the wall.
20. 3:20
    • Baruch son of Zabbai zealously repaired another section after him.
    • That section ran from the angle of the wall to the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest.
21. 3:21
    • Meremoth son of Urijah son of Koz repaired another section after him.
    • That section ran from the door of Eliashib's house to the end of Eliashib's house.
22. 3:22
    • The priests from the surrounding plain made repairs after him.
23. 3:23
    • Benjamin and Hashub made repairs after him.
    • Their section was opposite their own house.
    • Azariah son of Maaseiah son of Ananiah made repairs after him.
    • Azariah's section was beside his own house.
24. 3:24
    • Binnui son of Henadad repaired another section after him.
    • That section ran from the house of Azariah to the angle of the wall and to the corner.
25. 3:25
    • Palal son of Uzai made repairs opposite the angle of the wall.
    • Palal's section included the tower projecting from the king's upper house, which was by the court of the guard.
    • Pedaiah son of Parosh made repairs after him.
26. 3:26
    • The temple servants were living in Ophel.
    • Their work extended to the place opposite the water gate toward the east and to the projecting tower.
27. 3:27
    • The Tekoites repaired another section after them.
    • That section was opposite the great projecting tower and reached to the wall of Ophel.
28. 3:28
    • The priests made repairs above the horse gate.
    • Each priest repaired the part opposite his own house.
29. 3:29
    • Zadok son of Immer made repairs after them.
    • Zadok's section was opposite his own house.
    • Shemaiah son of Shechaniah made repairs after him.
    • Shemaiah was the keeper of the east gate.
30. 3:30
    • Hananiah son of Shelemiah and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph repaired another section after him.
    • Meshullam son of Berechiah made repairs after him.
    • Meshullam's section was opposite his own chamber.
31. 3:31
    • Malchiah, a son of the goldsmiths, made repairs after him.
    • His section extended to the house of the temple servants and of the merchants, opposite the gate of Miphkad.
    • His section extended to the upper chamber at the corner.
32. 3:32
    • The goldsmiths and the merchants made repairs between the upper chamber at the corner and the sheep gate.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

3:1

Jerusalem's wall had lain in ruins for about 140 years, since the Babylonian army destroyed the city in 586 BC; this chapter is a section-by-section record of who rebuilt which stretch. The high priest was the head of the whole priesthood and the only man permitted to enter the innermost room of the temple, and then only once a year. The Sheep Gate stood at the north-east, near the temple, and was probably where animals for sacrifice were brought into the city. To "set apart for God's use" (older versions say "sanctify") meant to mark something off by ceremony as no longer ordinary but reserved for God, priests did this to buildings and objects, not only to people. The Tower of the Hundred renders a Hebrew name whose sense is unknown; guesses include a hundred cubits high, a hundred steps, or a garrison of a hundred men.

3:2

Jericho lay about fifteen miles northeast of Jerusalem, down in the Jordan valley. Crews came in from towns all over the province to work on the capital's wall, not just from Jerusalem itself.

3:3

The bolts were pins that dropped into sockets; the bars were heavy beams laid horizontally across the closed doors on the inside, the standard way a city gate was secured at night.

3:4

"Made repairs" translates a Hebrew verb that also carries the sense of strengthening or making firm; the work was mostly rebuilding on top of the ruined courses of the old wall rather than starting from bare ground. Family lines are given because priestly and official descent determined a man's standing and duties.

3:5

Tekoa was a town about ten miles south of Jerusalem. "Bend their necks to the work" is an image from farming: an ox that refuses the yoke. The last words are genuinely ambiguous in Hebrew. The word can mean "their lords" (the foremen or overseers directing the job, whom the nobles thought beneath them) or it can be read as a title for God, which is how the King James Version took it ("the work of their Lord"). The Hebrew allows either.

3:6

The Hebrew name of this gate may mean "the gate of the old wall" or "the old city gate," or it may be a place name, Jeshanah, a town north of Jerusalem; translations differ.

3:7

Gibeon and Mizpah were towns roughly six to eight miles north of Jerusalem. "The province west of the Euphrates" (older versions: "beyond the river") was the standing Persian name for the whole territory between the Euphrates and Egypt, governed from Damascus or Sidon; Judah was one small district inside it. The Hebrew of the last clause is unclear: it may mark how far along the wall these men built, or it may say that they were men under that governor's jurisdiction rather than Jerusalem's.

3:8

Goldsmiths and perfume makers were organized trades, and members of a guild worked the wall as a unit, much as townspeople worked by town. Perfume makers compounded scented oils and incense, including the mixtures used in the temple. The Broad Wall was a known landmark on the west side; a stretch of wall about twenty-two feet thick, built some three centuries earlier, has been uncovered there.

3:9

Under Persian rule Judah was divided into administrative districts, each with an appointed ruler; Jerusalem's district was split into two halves with a ruler over each. The districts named through this chapter (Beth-haccherem, Mizpah, Beth-zur, Keilah) are the surrounding country towns whose people came in to work.

3:11

The Tower of the Ovens is named for baking ovens, suggesting the city's bakers worked in that quarter.

3:12

That a man's daughters are recorded as working on the wall is unusual in such a list; some take it to mean Shallum had no sons, others that the phrase refers to outlying villages dependent on his district, since Hebrew can call a village a town's "daughter."

3:13

A cubit was about eighteen inches, the length of a forearm, so a thousand cubits is roughly a quarter of a mile. Zanoah was a town in the lowlands west of Jerusalem. The Dung Gate opened toward the valley where the city's refuse was carried out.

3:14

Bethhaccerem was a town a few miles south of Jerusalem and one of the administrative centers of the province.

3:15

The Fountain Gate was named for the Gihon spring, the city's main water source, which lay just outside the wall on the east. The Pool of Siloam was the reservoir inside the city that the spring fed through a rock-cut tunnel. Roofing a gate means covering the passage between the two gate towers. The City of David is the oldest part of Jerusalem, the narrow southern ridge that David captured and made his capital, below and south of the temple.

3:16

The kings of Judah were buried within the City of David, and their tomb area was still a recognized landmark. The House of the Mighty Men was probably a barracks; the name recalls the corps of elite warriors who served David.

3:17

The Levites were members of the tribe of Levi who served at the temple in supporting roles (music, gatekeeping, maintenance, assisting at sacrifices) but were not priests and could not offer the sacrifices themselves.

3:19

The armory was the store of weapons attached to the palace complex. The "turn" is a sharp angle in the line of the wall, used here as a fixed reference point that recurs in the next few verses.

3:20

"Worked hard" renders a Hebrew word found only here in this sense; it is usually taken to mean he worked with unusual zeal, though some scholars suspect the text is damaged.

3:22

The Hebrew says these priests came from "the circle" or "the plain," a term normally used for the broad floor of the Jordan valley around Jericho, so priests who lived outside the city and came in for the work.

3:25

The upper palace was the older royal residence on the eastern ridge. The courtyard of the guard was an enclosure attached to it where prisoners were held in open custody rather than in a cell; the prophet Jeremiah was confined there during the Babylonian siege.

3:26

The temple servants (older versions transliterate the Hebrew as "Nethinim," meaning "the given ones") were a hereditary class assigned to the heavy, menial work of the temple (hauling water, cutting wood, general labor) ranking below the Levites. Ophel is the saddle of ground between the old City of David and the temple platform. The Water Gate faced the Gihon spring.

3:28

The Horse Gate lay at the north-east, between the palace and the temple, and took its name from the horses brought through it into the palace grounds.

3:29

Gatekeeper was a formal office, not casual guard duty: the keeper opened and shut the gate at fixed hours and controlled who passed through. At the temple the gatekeepers were a recognized order of Levites.

3:30

The King James calls it his "chamber." Meshullam had rooms of his own in the buildings around the temple.

3:31

The Hebrew name of this gate, Miphkad, comes from a verb meaning to muster, appoint or inspect; whether it was where troops were reviewed, where goods were checked, or something else is not known, so translations render it variously.

3:32

Goldsmiths and merchants close the circuit where it began, at the Sheep Gate, the account has traced the whole wall round and back to its starting point.