Neh 7:6-69 | Clarke

‏ Nehemiah 7:6-69

Verse 7. Who came with Zerubbabel] The register which he found was that of the persons only who came long before Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Joshua the son of Josedek, which register could not answer in every respect to the state of the people then. Several persons and families were no doubt dead, and others had arrived since. Nehemiah probably altered it only in such parts, leaving the body of it as it was before; and this will account for the difference between it and the register that is found in Ezra, Ezr 2:1-58.

Verse 8. The children of Parosh] As this chapter is almost entirely the same with the second chapter of the book of Ezra, it is not necessary to add any thing to what is said there; and to that chapter, and the accompanying notes, the reader is requested to refer.

Verse 19. The children of Bigval, two thousand threescore and seven] Some MSS. read two thousand and sixty-six, as in Ezr 2:14.

Verse 33. The men of the other Nebo] The word other is not in the parallel place, Ezr 2:29, and is wanting in many of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. This Nebo is supposed to be the same as Nob or Nobah, in the tribe of Benjamin.

Verse 34. The other Elam] To distinguish him from the Elam mentioned Ne 7:12.

Verse 54. The children of Mehida] Many of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., have Mehira.

Verse 68. Their horses, &c.] The whole of this verse is wanting in fifty of Kennicott's MSS., and in twenty-nine of those of De Rossi, in the edition of Rab. Chayim, 1525, in the Roman Edit. of the Septuagint; also in the Syriac and in the Arabic. It should however be observed, that the Arabic omits the whole list, having nothing of the chapter but the first five verses. The whole is found in the parallel place, Ezr 2:66. Calmet's note on this passage is incorrect.

Verse 69. Their camels, four hundred thirty and five] After this verse St. Jerome has inserted the following words in the Vulgate:-

Hucusque refertur quid in commentario scriptum

fuerit; exin Nehemiae historia texitur.

"Thus far do the words extend which were written

in the register; what follows belongs to the

history of Nehemiah."

But this addition is not found either in the Hebrew or any of the ancient versions. It is wanting also in the Complutum and Paris Polyglots, but is in the Editio Prima of the Vulgate.