Nehemiah — Chapter 2

Factum est autem in

And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes — of Longimanus; for he (not Xerxes his father, to whom Josephus wrongly attributes this) reigned 32 years and more, as is said in chapter 13:6. Thus Julius Africanus, St. Jerome, Augustine, Eusebius, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Bede, Rupert, and others cited by Pererius in his commentary on Daniel XI, who therefore generally begin Daniel's seventy weeks (Daniel 9:25) from this twentieth year of Artaxerxes in which he granted Nehemias permission to rebuild Jerusalem. See what was said there; the matter was treated at length in that place, and will not be repeated here. \"And I lifted the wine (from the table) and gave it to the king\" — into his hands, that he might drink, serving as his cupbearer. One may ask how Nehemias came to be so close to Artaxerxes as to be his intimate and serve as cupbearer — an office primary at court and entrusted only to those great and most faithful. The first cause was the wisdom, virtue, and grace of Nehemias, by which he ingratiated himself with princes so as to win them to himself and his Jewish people. The second cause was that many think Esther was the wife of this Artaxerxes, who bound him to herself, to Nehemias, and to the Jews — this is to be examined in the book of Esther. The third and more particular cause was that the kings of Persia drank Syrian or Syria-imported wine (Suidas, book XV; Athenaeus), and Judaea is a part or appendage of Syria. Hence Artaxerxes wished Nehemias the Jew to be his cupbearer so that, as one most expert in the wines of his homeland, he might arrange for better wines to be brought from Judaea or Syria and carefully preserve and manage them in the manner customary in Syria, lest they grow sour or take on some defect. Athenaeus (V.29) records: \"The Persian kings drank only Chalybonian wine. Possidonius says it grows in Damascus of Syria, and that the Persians planted vines there.\" Concerning the water they drank, Athenaeus (II.6) writes: \"Herodotus (I) says that to the King of Persia water was carried from the river Choaspes flowing past Susa, from which alone he ever drank.\" It was this marvelous royal superstition to consider it unworthy of royal dignity to drink any other water.

Dixitque mihi rex Quare

And the king said to me: Why is your countenance sad, since I see you are not sick? This is not without cause, but there is some evil in your heart. — The king suspected from Nehemias' downcast countenance that he harbored something greatly afflicting him, or certainly was plotting some deed, perhaps contriving treachery against him. Hence he inquires into the cause of the sadness, speaking ambiguously so that Nehemias might sincerely reveal the cause, saying: \"some evil is in your heart\" — \"evil\" meaning affliction, sorrow, grief; or \"evil\" meaning malice, a wicked plot, as if perhaps he were planning something harmful against him; hence the Septuagint translates \"this is nothing but wickedness of heart.\" For in Hebrew \"ra\" (evil) signifies both wickedness and malice, and sorrow and affliction, just as \"good\" signifies both goodness and virtue, and joy and happiness, as in Psalm 132:1. The king seems to have feared that Nehemias might be putting poison in the wine. For kings who fear for themselves and their rank, and have many rivals, distrust all safe things and especially fear poisons in food and drink; as Seneca says in Thyestes: \"Poison is drunk from gold cups\" — especially if Nehemias, through his grief, had refused to drink the wine offered him by the king.

Rex in aeternum vive

O king, live for ever — that is: I wish you may live as long as possible and forever if possible. He says this to remove the king's fear and assure him he plans nothing against his life. \"Because the city of the house of my fathers' sepulchres is desolate\" — that is, I am grieved because Jerusalem, in which my fathers are buried, is desolate. He calls tombs \"houses\" because in Hebrew \"house\" signifies any place, cave, chest, or vessel that encompasses and contains a body; thus nests are called houses of birds, rivers and seas houses of fish. Moreover, great care and devotion toward the tombs of fathers and grandfathers was characteristic of the ancients, lest their bones be exhumed, cast away, profaned, or mixed with profane or unclean things. Thus Baruch (2:24) laments this done by the Chaldeans. God had threatened this through Jeremiah (7:4). Among all peoples the violation of tombs was considered a very grave injury and disgrace. Horace (Epode 16) laments this: \"The barbarian conqueror will tread upon our ashes, and the horseman will beat the city with his sounding hoof; and the bones of Quirinus, which lack wind and sun (a sacrilege to see), the insolent one will scatter.\" Thus Artaxerxes received Nehemias' just and weighty complaint with sympathetic ears, remembering what the Scythians had answered to Darius, as narrated by Valerius Maximus (V.4). Even today the Arabs, though fierce and barbarous, defend the tombs of their leaders and fathers and fight for them as for home and altar, as the neighboring Maronites told me in Rome.

Oravi Deum coeli

And I prayed to the God of heaven — with a brief ejaculatory prayer, but ardent, that just as He had already begun to make the king benevolent toward me and my people, so He would continue, that the king might grant my petition about to be presented concerning the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

Dixitque mihi rex et

And the king said to me, and the queen who sat beside him: How long will your journey be, and when will you return? — namely Esther, according to Torniellus, Gordanus, Serarius, Salianus, Sanchez, and Bellarmine (Tome I, Book I, Chapter 6) — more on this in the preface to Esther. \"Until what time will your journey be?\" — that is: How long will you spend going and returning? For we wish you to return as quickly as possible so that you may continue serving us in your office of cupbearer, which you perform so excellently; we do not wish to be long deprived of your pleasant presence. What Nehemias replied is not narrated; it is certain, however, that he did reply and assigned some time — a brief one — though perhaps he was detained in Jerusalem longer than he said or expected; for he governed there as prefect for twelve years, from the 20th to the 32nd year of Artaxerxes (chapters 5:14 and 13:6). Hence some think he was absent from the king for all twelve years, but the desire of the king and queen does not seem to have tolerated so long an absence; it is therefore likely that Nehemias returned to the king shortly after the 52 days in which he completed the wall construction, as will appear in chapter 6.

Trans Flumen ut traducant

Beyond the River (the Euphrates), that they may convey me until I come into Judaea. — For on this side of the Euphrates almost all peoples as far as Judaea were rivals and enemies of the Jews, unwilling that Jerusalem — once so powerful, celebrated, and feared by them — should be restored. For God had given all regions from Jerusalem to the Euphrates to the Jews, and had given the Euphrates as their boundary. Hence David also extended his victorious arms as far as the Euphrates. Thus Josephus (Ant. XI.5) says that these peoples in the time of Nehemias raided the fields of the Jews day and night, mingling all things with slaughter, plunder, and disaster. Knowing this, Nehemias rightly asked the king to arrange for him to be safely escorted to Jerusalem; and the king granted him this and more, adding a military escort for his protection.

Et epistolam ad Asaph

And a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest — which was on Mount Lebanon, so that timber might be given to me from there, and sent by sea to Joppa for the construction of the walls of Jerusalem. Thus Sanchez and Vilalpandus (Tome III, Book III). \"That I may cover the gates of the tower of the house\" — of God, namely the temple, as the Complutensian text reads. For although the temple had already been built, its appendages were not yet constructed (Vatablus). Hence in Hebrew: \"That I may cover the gates of the royal palace, which was annexed to the house\" — that is, to the temple.

Et eram ibi tribus

And I was there three days — lying hidden and concealed, so that by night I might survey the ruins of the city and see what needed to be immediately repaired, lest Sanaballat and his allies discover and impede my plans.

Et jumentum non erat

And no beast was with me, except the beast I rode. — That is, I alone, on account of age and weariness, was carried on a horse or ass; but my companions went on foot, lest the number and noise of horses and riders arouse our enemies to attack us.

Egressus sum per portam

And I went out by the gate of the valley by night — (This gate was not the eastern one leading to the valley of Josaphat, but the western one looking toward the valleys of the dead and of Calvary. So the Septuagint.) \"AND BEFORE THE FOUNTAIN OF THE DRAGON\" — from which water gushed and poured through the mouth of a bronze or stone dragon. \"AND THE DUNG GATE\" — through which dung was carried out (Borchardus, Vilalpandus, Adrichomius, Salianus). \"AND I VIEWED THE WALL OF JERUSALEM WHICH WAS BROKEN DOWN\" — Hebrew: \"they (the walls) thrown down,\" where the final letter mem, which is usually closed, is open, to indicate that the city wall was gaping and open because it had been broken down and demolished.

Et transivi ad portam

And I passed to the gate of the fountain (Siloam) and to the king's aqueduct — of Hezekiah; for Hezekiah diverted the waters of the Siloam spring through an aqueduct cut through rock into cisterns within the city of Jerusalem, so that citizens besieged by Sennacherib would have water to drink, and the besieging Assyrians, suffering from lack of water, would die of thirst. This is clear from 2 Chronicles 32:30 and Ecclesiasticus 48:19. \"AND THERE WAS NO ROOM FOR THE BEAST UNDER ME TO PASS\" — because on one side were steep cliffs, on the other the rubble of demolished walls, and water covering everything; hence I was forced to turn back.

Et ascendi per torrentem

And I went up by the torrent (Cedron) by night and viewed the wall — to see what needed to be restored first in it, and to which section I should immediately set my hand. \"AND TURNING BACK I CAME TO THE GATE OF THE VALLEY\" — of the dead and of Calvary, as mentioned in verse 13.

Et reliquis qui faciebant

And the rest who did the work — that is, the artisans and overseers of the works, who were appointed for the construction of the walls but had interrupted it or carried it on slowly and weakly because of enemy incursions and attacks.

Et indicavi eis manum

And I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me. — The hand is a symbol of help and assistance, and also of direction and protection; Nehemias had experienced this hand of God, both in that He had made King Artaxerxes so benevolent and generous toward him, and in that He had prospered his journey through so many enemies and difficulties. Therefore Nehemias, indicating to the Jews both God's and the king's goodwill toward himself and them, encouraged them to take up again generously and fervently the building of the city walls, which had been abandoned or negligently tended because of Samaritan assaults.

Audierunt autem Sanaballat Horonites

And Sanaballat the Horonite heard — He is different from the Sanaballat who was father-in-law of Manasses, the first high priest of the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim. For that Horonite preceded this father-in-law of Manasses by 109 years, says Salianus — more on this below. \"AND TOBIAS THE AMMONITE SERVANT\" — who had risen from slave and serf and been appointed Prefect of the Ammonites by the king of Persia, just as Sanaballat over Samaria and Goshem over Arabia. These three prefects of neighboring regions were therefore enemies and opponents of Nehemias and the Jews in the construction work.

Vobis autem non est

But you have no portion, and justice, and memorial in Jerusalem. — \"Justice,\" that is, right. As if to say: You Samaritans (formerly brought from Assyria to inhabit Samaria, 2 Kings 17), Ammonites, and Arabs have received from the Persians the right to administer Samaria, Ammonitis, and Arabia — not Judaea and Jerusalem — nor have you ever lived in Jerusalem; for there is no memorial of you there. Therefore manage your own affairs among those committed to your charge; do not meddle in our affairs. For I have received from the king of Persia full legal authority to rebuild Jerusalem; therefore beware lest you oppose me, for in so doing you will oppose the king of Persia and experience his vengeance. Thus Cajetan, Sanchez, and others.