Nehemiah 3:21

After him repaired Meremoth the son of Urijah the son of Koz another piece, from the door of the house of Eliashib even to the end of the house of Eliashib.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) Another piece.—Meremoth added to his other labour the repair of the wall under this house.

Benson Commentary

Nehemiah 3:21. From the door of the house of Eliashib, &c. — He carried on the work from the place where the other left off, from the door of the house to the end of it, which, being the house of a great man, we may suppose was very large.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:1-32 The rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. - The work was divided, so that every one might know what he had to do, and mind it, with a desire to excel; yet without contention, or separate interests. No strife appears among them, but which should do most for the public good. Every Israelite should lend a hand toward the building up of Jerusalem. Let not nobles think any thing below them, by which they may advance the good of their country. Even some females helped forward the work. Some repaired over against their houses, and one repaired over against his chamber. When a general good work is to be done, each should apply himself to that part which is within his reach. If every one will sweep before his own door, the street will be clean; if every one will mend one, we shall all be mended. Some that had first done helped their fellows. The walls of Jerusalem, in heaps of rubbish, represent the desperate state of the world around, while the number and malice of those who hindered the building, give some faint idea of the enemies we have to contend with, while executing the work of God. Every one must begin at home; for it is by getting the work of God advanced in our own souls that we shall best contribute to the good of the church of Christ. May the Lord thus stir up the hearts of his people, to lay aside their petty disputes, and to disregard their worldly interests, compared with building the walls of Jerusalem, and defending the cause of truth and godliness against the assaults of avowed enemies.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The other piece - Rather, "another piece." The notice of Baruch's first piece, like that of Malchijah's and Hashub's Nehemiah 3:11, seems to have slipped out of the text.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

19. at the turning of the wall—that is, the wall across the Tyropœon, being a continuation of the first wall, connecting Mount Zion with the temple wall [Barclay].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Therefore the door was not in the middle of the house, as now they commonly are, but at one end of it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

After him repaired Meremoth the son of Uriah, the son of Koz, another piece,.... He had wrought before in another part, Nehemiah 3:4, but having finished that, he sets his hand a second time to the work:

from the door of the house of Eliashib, even to the end of the house of Eliashib; the door of his house seems to have been at one end of it, and from that end to the other was a considerable length; he being a great man, the high priest, had a large house.

Geneva Study Bible

After him repaired Meremoth the son of Urijah the son of Koz another piece, from the door of the house of Eliashib even to the end of the house of Eliashib.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

21. Urijah the son of Koz] R.V. Uriah the son of Hakkoz.

another piece] R.V. another portion. Meremoth was also concerned in the repair of the Northern wall. See on Nehemiah 3:4.

even to the end] This description seems to imply that the high-priest’s house was a building of considerable extent, and that it was built upon the city wall. The word rendered ‘end’ (taclîth) seems only to occur in this sense twice elsewhere in the O.T., Job 26:10, ‘confines,’ Job 28:3, ‘end.’ Elsewhere e.g. Psalm 139:22 it is used to denote ‘perfection,’ ‘completeness.’ The words proved a difficulty to the versions, e.g. LXX. ἕως ἐκλείψεως, Vulg. donec extenderetur.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 21. - Meremoth's first piece is mentioned in ver. 4. The second piece cannot have been very long, since it only extended along a portion of the high priest's house. Nehemiah 3:21

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The wall from the angle to the place of the court of the prison by the king's upper house. - Nehemiah 3:20 After him Baruch the son of Zabbai emulously repaired a second length of wall, from the angle to the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest. Bertheau objects to the reading החרה, and conjectures that it should be ההרה, "up the hill." But the reason he adduces, viz., that often as the word החזיק occurs in this description, a further definition is nowhere else added to it, speaks as much against, as for his proposed alteration; definitions of locality never, throughout the entire narrative, preceding החזיק, but uniformly standing after it, as also in the present verse. Certainly החרה cannot here mean either to be angry, or to be incensed, but may without difficulty be taken, in the sense of the Tiphal תּחרה, to emulate, to contend (Jeremiah 22:15; Jeremiah 12:5), and the perfect adverbially subordinated to the following verb (comp. Gesen. Gramm. 142, 3, a). The Keri offers זכּי instead of זבּי, probably from Ezra 2:9, but on insufficient grounds, the name זבּי occurring also Ezra 10:28. Of the position of the house of Eliashib the high priest, we know nothing further than what appears from these Ezra 10:20 and Ezra 10:21, viz., that it stood at the northern part of the eastern side of Zion (not at the south-western angle of the temple area, as Bertheau supposes), and extended some considerable distance from south to north, the second length of wall built by Meremoth reaching from the door at its southern end to the תּכלית, termination, at its northern end. On Meremoth, see rem. on Nehemiah 3:4.