Nehemiah 3:9
Next to them, Rephaiah son of Hur, ruler of a half-district of Jerusalem, made repairs;
Sermons
A Godly AncestryT. C. Finlayson.Nehemiah 3:1-32
A Suggestive Church RecordHomiletic CommentaryNehemiah 3:1-32
Associated LabourScientific IllustrationsNehemiah 3:1-32
At WorkT. Rowson.Nehemiah 3:1-32
Church WorkR.A. Redford Nehemiah 3:1-32
Honourable MentionT. C. Finlayson.Nehemiah 3:1-32
Individual LaboursA. G. Griffith.Nehemiah 3:1-32
Life's MasonryHomiletic CommentaryNehemiah 3:1-32
Merchant WorkersJ. M. Randall.Nehemiah 3:1-32
Ministers Should be LeadersJ. M. Randall.Nehemiah 3:1-32
System and Detail in WorkHomiletic CommentaryNehemiah 3:1-32
The Builders At WorkW. P. Lockhart.Nehemiah 3:1-32
The Building of the WallW. P. Lockhart.Nehemiah 3:1-32
The Repairer of the BreachW. Ritchie.Nehemiah 3:1-32














Notice several points in this record of the labours and the distribution of their work.

I. Devotion and effort in the cause of God are worthy of DISTINCTION AND REMEMBRANCE. Names have great power, both among contemporaries and successors. We are stimulated by individual examples.

1. The priests are mentioned first; and God's ministers should be first and foremost in every good work, especially that which is most closely connected with his house.

2. Not only individuals are honoured in thin record, but families. Our household life should be intimately bound up with our Church life. The best family title is that which is won in the field of holy enterprise.

3. While all were invited, some refused. The "nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord." But over against that disgraceful idleness we can place the superabundant zeal of others, who not only did their own work, but the work of others as well.

II. Even THE WOMEN WERE READY TO DO THEIR PART, and, understanding "daughters" in the sense of women, the daughters of Shallum, "ruler of the half part of Jerusalem," not too high or too weak to unite in such a cause. In the building of the spiritual Jerusalem the "daughters" contribute no mean portion.

III. SOME UNDERTOOK THE WORK "OVER AGAINST THEIR OWN HOUSE." We may find the opportunity close at hand. No greater honour can we attach to our own house than to connect it with the praise and glory of Jerusalem.

IV. The EFFECT of this general and contemporaneous effort of all the Lord's people to repair the ruins of their city in uniting them, effacing wrong distinctions, developing great qualities, lifting up their faith to a higher platform. Reformation both effect and cause of revival. - R.

And they fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall
I. THE SEPARATION OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD FROM THE WORLD IS LIKE THAT BROAD WALL SURROUNDING JERUSALEM. An actual separation is made by grace, is carried on in the work of sanctification, and will be completed in that day when the saints shall be caught up together with the Lord in the air.

1. Christians should maintain a broad wall of separation between themselves and the world. The distinction ought not to be one of dress or of speech, the separation ought to be moral and spiritual.(1) A Christian ought to be more scrupulous than other men in his dealings. He must never swerve from the path of integrity. He should be one whose word is his bond, and who having once pledged his word, sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not.(2) The Christian should be distinguished by his pleasures. We are not quite ourselves, perhaps, in our daily toil, where our pursuits are rather dictated by necessity than by choice, but our pleasures and pastimes give evidence of what our heart is and where it is.(3) Such separation should be carried into everything which affects the Christian. When a stranger comes into our house it should be so ordered that he can clearly perceive that we have a respect unto Him that is invisible, and that we desire to live and move in the light of God's countenance.(4) This broad wall should be most conspicuous in the spirit of our mind. There should be about a Christian always the air of one who has his shoes on his feet, his loins girded, and his staff in his hand — away, away to a better land.

2. Reasons why this wall should be very broad.(1) If you are sincere in your profession, there is a very broad distinction between you and unconverted people.(2) Remember that our Lord Jesus Christ had a broad wall between Him and the ungodly.(3) A broad wall of separation is abundantly good for yourselves. When a Christian gives way to the world's custom he never feels profited thereby. Ask a fish to spend an hour on dry land, and I think did he comply the fish would find that it was not much to its benefit, for it would be out of its element. And it is so with Christians in communion with sinners.(4) To keep up the broad wall of separation is to do most good to the world. A Christian loses his strength the moment he departs from his integrity. Although the world may openly denounce the rigid Puritan, it secretly admires him. You young man in the shop — you young woman in the workroom — if you keep yourselves to yourselves in Christ's name, chaste and pure for Jesus, not laughing at jests which should make you blush; not mixing up with pastimes that are suspicious; but being tenderly jealous of your conscience at all times, then your company in the midst of others shall be as though an angel shook his wings, and they will say, "Refrain from this or that just now, for So-and-so is there." They will fear you in a certain sense; they will admire you in secret; and who can tell but they, at last, may come to imitate you?

II. THE BROAD WALL ROUND JERUSALEM INDICATED SAFETY. The Christian is surrounded by the broad wall —

1. Of God's power.

2. Of God's love.

3. Of God's law and justice.

4. Of God's immutability.

5. Of the work of the Holy Spirit.

6. Almost every doctrine of grace affords us a broad wall, a mighty bulwark, a grand munition of defence.

III. THIS BROAD WALL SUGGESTS ENJOYMENT. These walls were used as promenades, and were utilised —

1. For rest from toil.

2. For communion.

3. For prospects and outlooks.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

People
Ananiah, Azariah, Azbuk, Baana, Bani, Baruch, Bavai, Benjamin, Berechiah, Besodeiah, Binnui, Colhozeh, David, Eliashib, Ezer, Gibeon, Hakkoz, Hallohesh, Halohesh, Hananiah, Hanun, Harhaiah, Harim, Harumaph, Hashabiah, Hashabniah, Hashub, Hassenaah, Hasshub, Hattush, Henadad, Hur, Immer, Imri, Jadon, Jedaiah, Jehoiada, Jeshua, Joiada, Koz, Levites, Maaseiah, Malchiah, Malchijah, Melatiah, Meremoth, Meshezabeel, Meshullam, Nehemiah, Pahathmoab, Palal, Parosh, Paseah, Pedaiah, Rechab, Rehum, Rephaiah, Shallum, Shallun, Shecaniah, Shechaniah, Shelah, Shelemiah, Shemaiah, Tekoites, Uriah, Urijah, Uzai, Uzziel, Zabbai, Zaccai, Zaccur, Zadok, Zalaph, Zur
Places
Beth-haccherem, Beth-zur, Beyond the River, Broad Wall, Dung Gate, East Gate, Fish Gate, Fountain Gate, Gate of Yeshanah, Gibeon, Horse Gate, Jericho, Jerusalem, Keilah, Mizpah, Muster Gate, Ophel, Pool of Shelah, Sheep Gate, Tower of Hananel, Tower of the Hundred, Tower of the Ovens, Valley Gate, Water Gate, Zanoah
Topics
District, Half, Half-district, Hur, Jerusalem, Official, Repaired, Repairs, Rephaiah, Rephai'ah, Ruler, Section, Strengthened, Working
Outline
1. The names and order of those who built the wall

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Nehemiah 3:9

     5509   rulers

Library
'Over against his House'
'The priests repaired every one over against his house.'--NEH. iii. 28. The condition of our great cities has lately been forced upon public attention, and all kinds of men have been offering their panaceas. I am not about to enter upon that discussion, but I am glad to seize the opportunity of saying one or two things which I think very much need to be said to individual Christian people about their duty in the matter. 'Every man over against his house' is the principle I desire to commend to you
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Broad Wall
"The broad wall."--Nehemiah 3:8. IT SEEMS that around Jerusalem of old, in the time of her splendor, there was a broad wall, which was her defence and her glory. Jerusalem is a type of the Church of God. It is always well when we can see clearly, distinctly, and plainly, that around the Church to which we belong there runs a broad wall. This idea of a broad wall around the Church suggests three things: separation, security, and enjoyment. Let us examine each of these in its turn. I. First, the SEPARATION
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 57: 1911

Divers Matters.
I. Beth-cerem, Nehemiah 3:14. "The stones, as well of the altar, as of the ascent to the altar, were from the valley of Beth-cerem, which they digged out beneath the barren land. And thence they are wont to bring whole stones, upon which the working iron came not." The fathers of the traditions, treating concerning the blood of women's terms, reckon up five colours of it; among which that, "which is like the water of the earth, out of the valley of Beth-cerem."--Where the Gloss writes thus, "Beth-cerem
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

Some Buildings in Acra. Bezeiha. Millo.
Mount Sion did not thrust itself so far eastward as mount Acra: and hence it is, that mount Moriah is said, by Josephus, to be "situate over-against Acra," rather than over-against the Upper City: for, describing Acra thus, which we produced before, "There is another hill, called Acra, which bears the Lower City upon it, steep on both sides": in the next words he subjoins this, "Over-against this was a third hill," speaking of Moriah. The same author thus describes the burning of the Lower City:
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

The Girdle of the City. Nehemiah 3
The beginning of the circumference was from 'the sheep-gate.' That, we suppose, was seated on the south part, yet but little removed from that corner, which looks south-east. Within was the pool of Bethesda, famous for healings. Going forward, on the south part, was the tower Meah: and beyond that, "the tower of Hananeel": in the Chaldee paraphrast it is, 'The tower Piccus,' Zechariah 14:10; Piccus, Jeremiah 31:38.--I should suspect that to be, the Hippic tower, were not that placed on the north
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

Gihon, the Same with the Fountain of Siloam.
I. In 1 Kings 1:33,38, that which is, in the Hebrew, "Bring ye Solomon to Gihon: and they brought him to Gihon"; is rendered by the Chaldee, "Bring ye him to Siloam: and they brought him to Siloam." Where Kimchi thus; "Gihon is Siloam, and it is called by a double name. And David commanded, that they should anoint Solomon at Gihon for a good omen, to wit, that, as the waters of the fountain are everlasting, so might his kingdom be." So also the Jerusalem writers; "They do not anoint the king, but
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

Ezra-Nehemiah
Some of the most complicated problems in Hebrew history as well as in the literary criticism of the Old Testament gather about the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Apart from these books, all that we know of the origin and early history of Judaism is inferential. They are our only historical sources for that period; and if in them we have, as we seem to have, authentic memoirs, fragmentary though they be, written by the two men who, more than any other, gave permanent shape and direction to Judaism, then
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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