Nehemiah 2

1. Nisan. The seventh month of the civil, first of the sacred year; answering to our March or April; so that four months had elapsed since Nehemiah had learned the afflicted condition of his countrymen at Jerusalem. This may have been his first attendance since that time on the king in private: see ver. 6, and note.

6 the queen also sitting by him. The presence of the queen intimates the privacy of the occasion. Her name was Damaspia.

7 may convey me. Rather, as R.V., “may let me pass through.” The “letters” were safe-conducts.

8 forest. The Persian word used here and in Eccles. ii. 5; Sol. Song iv. 13, is probably best translated “park.”

palace. R.V., “castle.” Probably, the “fort”; afterwards, by a slight modification of the word, called in Greek Baris, and named by Herod Antonias: see Josephus, Antiquities, xv. 11, 4.

10. Sanballat, etc. Sanballat was probably an Ephraimite or Samaritan of Beth-horon (Upper or Lower). Tobiah the Ammonite had been a slave. The Moabites and Ammonites had been subdued and carried captive by the kings of Babylon; and it is probable that Sanballat and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian (19), held appointments under the king of Persia, as governors over the remnant of these nations and the Samaritans, who were all very hostile to the Jews.

14 the king’s pool. Solomon’s pool.

15 the brook. The brook Kidron.