---
title: "Barnes"
description: "Since the watch of the temple had hitherto been kept by porters, singers, and Levites 1 Chronicles 26:1-19, so now the watch of the entire city was commit"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/barnes-notes-on-the-whole-bible/nehemiah/7"
---

Since the watch of the temple had hitherto been kept by porters, singers, and Levites [1 Chronicles 26:1-19](../../../kjv/1-chronicles/26/1-19), so now the watch of the entire city was committed to men of the same three classes, their experience pointing them out as the most suitable persons.

**My brother Hanani -**See [Nehemiah 1:2](../../../kjv/nehemiah/1/2).
**The ruler of the palace -**Or, “the governor of the fortress.” See the marginal reference note.
**He -**i. e. Hananiah.

**Until the sun be hot -**An unusual precaution. The ordinary practice in the East is to open town gates at sunrise.

**The people were few -**The number of those who returned with Zerubbabel was no more than 42,360 [Nehemiah 7:66](../../../kjv/nehemiah/7/66). Less than 2,000 people had come with Ezra [Ezra 8:1-20](../../../kjv/ezra/8/1-20).

It is argued by some that the entire catalogue which follows [Nehemiah 7:7-73](../../../kjv/nehemiah/7/7-73) is not the register of them “which came up ‘at the first’,” but of the Jewish people in Nehemiah’s time. [Nehemiah 7:7](../../../kjv/nehemiah/7/7) and [Ezra 2:2](../../../kjv/ezra/2/2) are, however, very positive in their support of the usual view; and some of the arguments against it are thought to be met by considering the Nehemiah of [Nehemiah 7:7](../../../kjv/nehemiah/7/7) and [Ezra 2:2](../../../kjv/ezra/2/2) a person different from Nehemiah the governor; and “Tirshatha” an official title likely to have belonged to others besides Nehemiah (see the [Ezra 2:63](../../../kjv/ezra/2/63) note.)

**Dwelt in their cities -**Nehemiah’s quotation from Zerubbabel’s register ends here, and the narration of events in Jerusalem in his own day is resumed from [Nehemiah 7:3](../../../kjv/nehemiah/7/3). The narrative [Nehemiah 8](../../../kjv/nehemiah/8); [Nehemiah 10](../../../kjv/nehemiah/10) appears from internal evidence to be by a different author (see the introduction of the Book of Nehemiah).
The last two clauses of [Nehemiah 7:73](../../../kjv/nehemiah/7/73) should stand as the beginning of [Nehemiah 8](../../../kjv/nehemiah/8) (as in the Septuagint). The text would then run: “And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in their cities, the whole people gathered themselves together as one man,” etc. Compare the margin reference.

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