Commentaria in II Esdrae (Nehemiam)
So even now the Arabs, though wild and barbarous, guard the sepulchres of their leaders and fathers, and fight for them as for their altars and hearths, as the Maronites, their neighbours, told me at Rome.
4. And I prayed to God—in a brief, ejaculatory but ardent prayer, that as he had begun to make the king well-disposed towards me, so he might go on, so that he would assent to my petition, which I was about to put before him, about rebuilding Jerusalem.
6. And the king said to me, and the queen (namely Esther, say Tornielli, Gordon, Serarius, Salianus, Sanchez and Bellarmine, tome 1, book 1, chapter 7,
And I was as one languishing before his face—and before this I had not been evil (that is, sad) in his presence. So Vatablus and Pagninus. But our version, for the Hebrew lo, that is, not, reads lo, that is, to him; hence it renders: And I was as one evil, that is, sad, wasted, exhausted, languishing before him; for grief, watching and fasting had made his face pale, thin and languid. Moreover, the Septuagint, reading with other points ra, that is, companion, in place of ra, that is, evil, render: And there was not another (that is, a companion) before him—as if to say: I alone was with the king.
long and, if it can be, for ever. He says this to take away the king’s fear, and that he may know that he is plotting nothing against his life.
because the city, the house of the sepulchres of my father, is desolate—being mixed with profane or unclean things. Hence Baruch, chapter 2, verse 24, laments and bewails that the same was done by the Chaldeans, saying: “And thou hast made good thy words, which thou spokest by thy servants the prophets, that the bones of our kings and the bones of our fathers should be taken out of their place, and behold they are cast out to the heat of the sun and to the frost of the night.” For God had threatened them with this through Jeremias, chapter 8, verse 1: “They shall cast out the bones of the kings of Juda, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of them that dwelt in Jerusalem out of their sepulchres.” For among all nations the violation of sepulchres was held to be a very grave injury and infamy.
on which more in the preface to Esther:) For how long shall thy journey be?—as if to say: How much time wilt thou spend in going and returning? For we wish thee to return as soon as possible, that thou mayest go on serving us in thy office of cupbearer, in which thou actest so excellently; for we are unwilling to be long deprived of thy presence, so pleasing to us. What Nehemias answered to this he does not relate; yet it is certain that he answered and assigned some time, and that a short one, although perhaps afterwards he was detained at Jerusalem longer than he had said and thought; for he was governor there for twelve years, namely from year 20 of Artaxerxes to year 32, as is clear from chapter 6, verse 4, and chapter 13, verse 6. Hence some think that he was absent from the king all that time, for twelve years; but the desire of the king and queen does not seem to have borne so long an absence; so it is likely that Nehemias returned to the king shortly after the 52 days in which he finished the walls, as will be clear
7. Beyond the river (the Euphrates), that they may convey me over, till I come into Judea.—For nearly all the nations on this side of the Euphrates, as far as Judea, were jealous and hostile to the Jews, so that they did not wish the city of Jerusalem, once so powerful and famous and formidable to them, to be restored. For God had given all the regions from Jerusalem to the Euphrates to the Jews, and had given them the Euphrates as a boundary. Hence David also carried his victorious arms as far as the Euphrates. Hence too Josephus, book 11, chapter 5, says that in the time of Nehemias these nations raided the fields of the Jews day and night, filling everything with slaughter, plunder and disaster. Knowing this, therefore, Nehemias rightly asked the king to see that he was conducted safely to Jerusalem; and the king granted him this and more, for he added for his protection a guard of soldiers.
8. And a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest—which was on Mount Libanus, that from there timber might be given me, and sent by sea to Joppe, for the city of Jerusalem. So Sanchez and Villalpandus, tome 3, book 3.
To cover the gates of the tower of the house—of God, that is, of the temple, as the Complutensian has it. For although the temple had already been built, the appendages of the temple were not yet built. So Vatablus. Hence the sense is: To cover the gates of the royal palace, which was attached to the house, that is, of God, that is, to the temple.
11. And was there three days—lying hidden and concealed, that by night I might survey the ruins of the city, and see what had to be repaired at once, lest Sanaballat and his companions learn my plans and hinder them.
12. And there was no beast with me, but the beast that I rode on—as if to say: I alone, on account of age and weariness, was carried on a horse or an ass; but my companions went on foot, lest our enemies be roused to harass us by the number and noise of horses and horsemen.
13. I went out by the gate of the valley. (This gate was not the eastern one, which led into the valley of Josaphat, but the other, western one, which looked towards the valleys of the corpses and of Calvary. So the Septuagint.) And before the dragon’s fountain (from which, namely, the waters leaped forth and were poured out through the mouth of a bronze or stone dragon:) and to the dung gate—through which dung was carried out. So Borchard, Villalpandus, Adrichomius, Salianus.
And I viewed the wall of Jerusalem which was broken down.—In the Hebrew word for “broken down,” the final mem, which is usually closed, is open, to indicate that the wall of the city was gaping and open, because it was thrown down and broken.
The king’s aqueduct—that of Ezechias? For Ezechias, by cutting through the rock, brought the waters of the fountain of Siloe by an aqueduct into the wells of the city of Jerusalem, so that the citizens besieged by Sennacherib might have water to drink, and the besieging Assyrians, suffering from want of water, might be worn out with thirst. This is clear from the book of 2 Paralipomenon, chapter 32, verse 30: “This is that Ezechias who stopped the upper spring of the waters of Gihon, and turned them away underground to the west of the city of David.” And more clearly Ecclesiasticus, chapter 48, verse 19: “Ezechias fortified his city, and brought in water into the midst thereof, and with iron dug a rock, and made a well for water.” See what is said there.
And there was no place for the beast to pass—because on one side were steep rocks, on the other the rubble of the thrown-down walls, filling everything up, together with water; so I was forced to turn my way back.
15. And I went up by the torrent (Cedron) in the night, and viewed the wall—that I might see what should first be restored in it, and to what part I ought immediately to set my hands: and coming back I came to the gate of the valley of the corpses and of Calvary, of which
16. And to the rest that did the work—that is, to the craftsmen and overseers of the works, who had indeed been appointed for the building of the walls, but because of the incursions and harassments of the enemy had interrupted the work, or were carrying it on slowly and half-heartedly.
18. And I told them how the hand of my God was good with me.—The hand is a symbol of help and aid, likewise of direction and protection; for Nehemias had perceived this from God, both because he had made King Artaxerxes so kind and generous towards him, and because he had prospered his journey through so many enemies and difficulties, overcoming them. So Nehemias, making known to the Jews the goodwill of God on the one hand and of the king on the other towards him and themselves, encouraged them to resume generously and fervently the building of the walls of the city, which had been abandoned or negligently pursued because of the assaults of the Samaritans.
This Sanaballat is different from Sanaballat the father-in-law of Manasses, the first high priest of the Samaritans on Mount Garizim. For that Horonite preceded this father-in-law of Manasses by 109 years, says Salianus, of whom more below.
And Tobias the servant, the Ammonite—who, raised from a slave and bondman, had been appointed by the king of the Persians governor of Ammonitis, just as Sanaballat was of Samaria, and Gosem of Arabia. These three, therefore, governors of the neighbouring regions, were bitterly hostile to Nehemias and the Jews and opposed them in the building.
20. But you have no part, nor justice, nor memory in Jerusalem.—“Justice,” that is, right—as if to say: You are in a manner Samaritans (brought over long ago by the Assyrians to dwell in Samaria, 4 Kings 17). You Ammonites and Arabs received from the Persians the right to administer Samaria, Ammonitis and Arabia. But as to Judea and Jerusalem, you have not dwelt in Jerusalem until now; for there is no memory of you in it. Therefore attend to your own affairs among those committed to you, but do not meddle in ours; for I have received from the king of the Persians the power of rebuilding Jerusalem with full right; so take care not to oppose me; otherwise you will be opposing the king of the Persians, and will find him so. So Cajetan, Sanchez and others.