Much of this chapter is a list, its separations denoted by Samech breaks within the verses. What are these? The Yehudit text is a continuous flow of words, without sentences or paragraphs, entirely unpunctuated save only these Samech and Pey breaks, added centuries later by the Masoretes as an aide for readers and students. As with Ezra 8, I have on this occasion retained the Samech breaks within my transliteration, because they are necessary to follow the structure. This link takes you to an explanation of the Pey and Samech breaks in the Torah; be aware that they function slightly differently in the rest of the Tanach, because it is only the Torah, with its accompanying Haphtarah, that is read in annual cycle in synagogue (the schedule of readings is posted here). The difference between the Pareshah Petuchah (Pey break) and the Pareshah Setumah (Samech break) in the Torah, and its use elsewhere, is explained here.
3:1 VA YAKAM EL-YASHIV HA KOHEN HA GADOL VE ECHAV HA KOHANIM VA YIVNU ET SHA'AR HA TSON HEMAH KIDHSUHU VA YA'AMIYDU DALTOTAV VE AD MIGDAL HA ME'AH KIDSHUHU AD MIGDAL CHANAN-EL {ס}
וַיָּקָם אֶלְיָשִׁיב הַכֹּהֵן הַגָּדוֹל וְאֶחָיו הַכֹּהֲנִים וַיִּבְנוּ אֶת שַׁעַר הַצֹּאןהֵמָּה קִדְּשׁוּהוּ וַיַּעֲמִידוּ דַּלְתֹתָיו וְעַד מִגְדַּל הַמֵּאָה קִדְּשׁוּהוּ עַד מִגְדַּל חֲנַנְאֵל
KJ (King James translation): Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests, and they builded the sheep gate; they sanctified it, and set up the doors of it; even unto the tower of Meah they sanctified it, unto the tower of Hananeel.
BN (BibleNet translation): Then El-Yashiv the high priest got up with his brother priests, and they built the Sheep Gate. They sanctified it, and set up its doors. They continued the sanctification all the way to the towers of Hame'ah and Chanan-El.
Oh but I do like the idea of the Kohanim, and even the Kohen Gadol noch, getting out their spades and trowels and doing some building-site work!
KIDSHUHU: We are not given any information about the rites and ceremonies of this. We know that a shrine, like a house, would have had a formal ceremony known as Chanukat ha Bayit, Chanukah meaning "dedication", but whether the same was the case for a city gate is not known.
HA ME'AH or HAM'E'AH? "The tower of the 100", or "Ham'e'ah's Tower", whoever Ham'e'ah might have been? The general consensus is "the 100", but with no idea who the hundred were, or why that number - which is not generally a significant number in the Yisra-Eli world (though it does pose the question, given that these were the two towers protecting the main gateway entrance to the Temple itself, whether the later Me'ah She'arim district of Yeru-Shala'im didn't take its name from this source.)
CHANAN-EL: see the link.
samech break
KJ: And next unto them the Tekoites repaired; but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord.
KJ: And next unto them repaired Melatiah the Gibeonite, and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon, and of Mizpah, unto the throne of the governor on this side the river.
AL YADO...TSORPHIM: Singular, when it should be plural... plural, when it should be singular. GCSE classical Yehudit, D grade. Needs to spend more time working on his grammar. I strongly recommend a private tutor.
UZI-EL BEN CHARHA-YAH: On this occasion we can say for certain that these men belong to the crafts guilds (see my notes at verses 4 and 7), though there is dispute as to whether the Tsorphim were silversmiths (Judges 17:4, Psalm 66:10) or goldsmiths, as here or Isaiah 40:19. The answer is actually: "both" - the root is TSARAPH (cf Psalm 12:7), which means "to smelt".
CHANAN-YAH BEN HA RAKACHIM: Apothecaries or perfumiers? Like the silversmiths and the goldsmiths, probably the same craftsmen did both, because the same herbs and flowers lay at the base of both. The root, REKACH, also yields the word for "spices", and as a verb is used for seasoning food - cf Exodus 30:33, Ezekiel 24:10, 1 Samuel 8:13, many others.
YA'AZVU: I have never found it in this usage before; normally it means "abandoned", which is the precise opposite of the translation here. I wonder if Nechem-Yah has simply got his vocab mixed up, like his grammar.
CHOMAH HA RECHAVAH: The key defensive wall when Yeru-Shala'im survived the onslaught by Sennacherib in 721 BCE, rediscovered by archaeologists in the 1970s - click here for the historic, here for the biblical background.
samech break
3:9 VE AL YADAM HECHEZIK REPHA-YAH VEN CHUR SAR CHATSI PELECH YERU-SHALA'IM {ס}
KJ: And next unto them repaired Jedaiah the son of Harumaph, even over against his house. And next unto him repaired Hattush the son of Hashabniah.
YEDA-YAH VEN CHARUMAPH: And why suddenly a "Ven" rather than a "Ben"? I think, on this occasion, the sloppiness is with the Masoretes, who missed the dagesh, rather than Nechem-Yah. Charumaph is probably Charum-Aph, "flat-nosed".
There is a Yedah-Yah, "of the house of Yeshu'a", listed among those who came from Babylon with Zeru-Bavel, in Ezra 2:36.
CHATUSH BEN CHASHAVNE-YAH: Chatush means "assembled", which makes me wonder if this was a group of clerks from the accounts department, rather than a single man; Chashavne comes from Cheshbon, which means "accounts" - the Temple Levites coming out alongside the Temple priests. There is a Chatush, from the Beney David, listed among those who accompanied Ezra on his journey from Babylon, at Ezra 8:2.
internal samech break
KJ: Malchijah the son of Harim, and Hashub the son of Pahathmoab, repaired the other piece, and the tower of the furnaces.
The phrase MIDAH SHENIT is used repeatedly, and the meaning seems to shift slightly with different usages. I am wondering if, perhaps, the wall being quite thick in many places, we are not talking literally about its two sides, one person working on the inside, the other on the outside, their lines of brick or stone filled in with rubble in between.
KJ: And next unto him repaired Shallum the son of Halohesh, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem, he and his daughters.
KJ: The valley gate repaired Hanun, and the inhabitants of Zanoah; they built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and a thousand cubits on the wall unto the dung gate.
KJ: But the dung gate repaired Malchiah the son of Rechab, the ruler of part of Bethhaccerem; he built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof.
MALKI-YAH VEN RECHAV: I commented on the interesting mixing of god-names when the name appeared in verse 11, but this is even more interesting, because RECHAV adds the third great moon-city to our list of combined deities, Rahab of Yericho - much more at the link to her name.
KJ: But the gate of the fountain repaired Shallun the son of Colhozeh, the ruler of part of Mizpah; he built it, and covered it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and the wall of the pool of Siloah by the king's garden, and unto the stairs that go down from the city of David.
BN: And the Fountain Gate was restored by Shalun ben Kol Chozeh, the mayor of the district of Ha Mitspah; he built it, and covered it, and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars, as well as the wall of the Pool of Shelach by the King's Garden, all the way to the stairs that go down from the city of David.
VIY'TALELENU: why would a
gate be "covered"? and with what? The rooms for the guards, ammo storage, even housing and offices - the illustration shows the gatehouse at Woolwich Arsenal.
VE YA'AMID[U]: see my note to HA SHEPHOT at verse 13; this relates to the square bracket in the Yehudit text, the Masoretic editor recognising (you see, it isn't just me!) the grammatical and/or spelling error in Nechem-Yah's original.
BERECHAT HA SHELACH: Yet another variant name for what Yesha-Yahu calls "the Pool of Shilo'ach" but is invariably rendered in English as "the waters of Shiloh (cf Isaiah 8:6); and elsewhere, as we have seen, is rendered as Shilo'a or Silo'am - see my extensive note to Nehemiah 2:13.
BN: After him Nechem-Yah ben Azbuk, the ruler of half of the district of Beit Tsur, undertook the strengthening work as far as the point facing the sepulchres of David, and as far as the new pool that has been made, and the House of the Warriors.
BEIT TSUR: 2 Chronicles 11 includes it among the many towns that Rechav-Am (Rehoboam) fortified at the start of the civil war with Yerav-Am (Jeroboam), but alas gives no further information about its precise location; and the other reference to it, in 1 Chronicles 2:45, wants it to be the name of a person, which is thoroughly implausible given that Beit Tsur means "Shrine of the Rock", and thoroughly ironic, given that there is indeed a "Shrine of the Rock" in Yeru-Shala'im, built by the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik around 690 CE, right on the site of the destroyed Temple.
BN: After him the strengthening-work was undertaken by the Leviyim, Rechum ben Bani. And next to him the strengthening-work was undertaken by Chashav-Yah, the ruler of half the district of Ke'ilah, on behalf of his district.
ACHARAV: No, I reject my note to this in the last verse, and apply instead my note to HECHEZIK some verses before that: I think Nechem-Yah too has got bored with the endless repetition of the same empty phrases, and is looking for variations. Let's hope he finds some.
BN: And strengthening the wall next to him, was Ezer ben Yeshu'a, the ruler of Ha Mitspah; but on the other side, the one facing the ascent to the armoury at the buttress.
BN: After him Baruch ben Zvi (ben Zakai) fastidiously repaired another portion, from the buttress to the door of the house of El-Yashiv the High Priest.
BARUCH BEN ZAKAI: The parenthesis changes a Bet to a Chaf, but why would this not be correct as Zvi, a perfectly common Yehudit name (ZEV = wolf)? Ah, because ZEV = wolf is in fact Ze'ev = wolf, with an Aleph (זאב). So either way there is yet another flaw in Nechem-Yah's knowledge of Yehudit, or in the scribal skills of his secretary.
That's better. Now we can see what it is that KJ translated as the "Turning", right there at the corner between the Dung Gate (verse 13) and the Fountain Gate (verse 15), and about to make our way towards the Water Gate (verse 26).
BN: And after him the priests, the men of the Plain.
ANSHEY HA KIKAR: Is that like AM HA ARETS, a euphemism for "peasants"? Or does this mean that these priests were not Yeru-Shala'im priests, but the ones who had gone out, or would be going out, to the Levitical cities, the distant shrines?
And oddly, no samech break at any point of this verse. Probably another oversight.
BN: After them repaired Bin-Yamin and Chashuv over against their house. After them repaired Azar-Yah ven Ma'asey-Yah ben Anan-Yah beside his house.
BN: After him repaired Binu'i ben Chenadad, another section, from Azar-Yah's house to the Turning and as far as the corner.
BINU'I: A Binu'i is mentioned in Ezra 8:33, but as a patronymic; oddly there is a Binu'i ben Pachat-Mo-Av mentioned in Ezra 10:30, as a brother of Ma'asey-Yah, but it is not that Binu'i who is building here, even though it appears to be the house next-door.
BN: Palal ben Uzai repaired over against the Turning, and the tower that projects from the upper house of the king, which is by the court of the guard. After him Peda-Yah ben Par'osh repaired.
Have I missed a piece of text when I typed this, or is it missing from the original? No, the KJ translation definitely doesn't say "repaired" either... LECHAZEK? Has Nechem-Yah got bored with the repetition, and dropped it (see my translation and notes to verse 13)?!... or is the whole thing backwards and it's the second line that should be at the beginning... no, I've checked multiple versions, and this is the verse as we know it, with that second line where it is, and incomplete, and the first line as it is, but making no sense... because there is no verb.
BN: Now the Netiynim dwelt on the hill of Ophel, as far as the point opposite the water gate and the projecting tower on the eastern side.
KJ: After them the Tekoites repaired another piece, over against the great tower that lieth out, even unto the wall of Ophel.
BN: After him the Teko'im repaired another section, from opposite the large projecting tower as far as the Ophel Wall.
BN: And between the cornerstone and the Sheep Gate the goldsmiths and the merchants undertook the wall-strengthening.
At this point most Christian versions, including the King James, now end the chapter, carrying the next six verses with them, and giving chapter 4 twenty-three verses; the Yehudit version, which I am using, keeps those six verses here, and so its chapter 4 has only 17 verses. I have marked the KJ chapter and verse accordingly on each occasion.
And, perhaps surprisingly, there is neither a Pey nor even a Samech break in the Yehudit versions to note this change of topic.
3:33 VA YEHI KA ASHER SHAM'A SANVALAT KI ANACHNU VONIM ET HA CHOMAH VA YICHAR LO VA YICH'AS HARBEH VA YAL'EG AL HA YEHUDIM
The list of builders is complete; the story moves on to the response of Sanvalat. A change of chapter is actually entirely logical. Having said which, see my note at the end of verse 38.
BN: And he spoke before his kinsmen, and the army of Shomron, and said: "What are these pathetic Jews doing? Will they restore at will? Will they make sacrifice? Will they make an end this day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, seeing they are burned?"
KJ (4:3): Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.
BN: "Hear, O our gods, for we are despised. Turn back their reproach upon their own head, and give them up to spoiling in a land of captivity...
The final six verses are both Sanvalat's response to the building of the wall, and Nechem-Yah's response to that response, which will lead to the actions taken in the next scene; so a change of chapter here, rather than at verse 32, is entirely logical. The final verse is the completion of the account of the building of the wall; the opening phrase of the next verse, at the start of the next chapter, clearly makes that separation; but so did the opening phrase at verse 33.
3:2 VE AL YADO VANU ANSHEY YERECHO {ס} VE AL YADO VANAH ZAKUR BEN IMRI {ס}
KJ: And next unto him builded the men of Jericho. And next to them builded Zaccur the son of Imri.
BN: And next to him the men of Yerecho built. And next to them Zakur ben Imri built.
ANSHEY YERECHO: Had the returnees at the time of Zeru-Bavel, or since, re-established their homes in Jericho, and were now galvanised by Nechem-Yah to join the work in Yeru-Shala'im, or was this simply a "clan-name", so to speak, for the various groups who had settled only in and immediatelyaround Yeru-Shala'im? We have no textual or other archaeological evidence to answer this question, but the inferences of what we do have are that Zeru-Bavel's returnees did not achieve very much in Yeru-Shala'im, let alone beyond, because the Shomronim, and others, did everything in their power to prevent them - and then the Greeks invaded, and destroyed whatever they had managed to achieve.
וְעַל יָדוֹ בָנוּ אַנְשֵׁי יְרֵחוֹ וְעַל יָדוֹ בָנָה זַכּוּר בֶּן אִמְרִי
KJ: And next unto him builded the men of Jericho. And next to them builded Zaccur the son of Imri.
BN: And next to him the men of Yerecho built. And next to them Zakur ben Imri built.
ANSHEY YERECHO: Had the returnees at the time of Zeru-Bavel, or since, re-established their homes in Jericho, and were now galvanised by Nechem-Yah to join the work in Yeru-Shala'im, or was this simply a "clan-name", so to speak, for the various groups who had settled only in and immediatelyaround Yeru-Shala'im? We have no textual or other archaeological evidence to answer this question, but the inferences of what we do have are that Zeru-Bavel's returnees did not achieve very much in Yeru-Shala'im, let alone beyond, because the Shomronim, and others, did everything in their power to prevent them - and then the Greeks invaded, and destroyed whatever they had managed to achieve.
ZAkUR BEN IMRI: See my notes to Ezra 8:14, though that is probably an error for Zabud, and anyway not a son of Imri. Zachur is the same name as Zechar-Yah the Prophet, just without the name of the goddess appended.
2 samech breaks
KJ: But the fish gate did the sons of Hassenaah build, who also laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof.
KJ: And next unto them repaired Meremoth the son of Urijah, the son of Koz. And next unto them repaired Meshullam the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabeel. And next unto them repaired Zadok the son of Baana.
3:3 VE ET SHA'AR HA DAGIM
BANU BENEY HASNA'AH HEMAH KERUHU VA YA'AMIYDU DALTOTAV MAN'ULAV U
VERIYCHAV
וְאֵת שַׁעַר הַדָּגִים בָּנוּ בְּנֵי הַסְּנָאָה הֵמָּה קֵרוּהוּ וַיַּעֲמִידוּ דַּלְתֹתָיו מַנְעוּלָיו וּבְרִיחָיו
KJ: But the fish gate did the sons of Hassenaah build, who also laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof.
BN: And the Beney Hasna'ah built the Fish Gate; they laid its beams, and set up its doors, its bolts and its bars.
BENEY HASNA'AH? or BENEY HA SENA'AH? - same problem as with HA ME'AH above; here the meaning is likely to determine which is correct, though it is also made more complicated because there is a very specific SENEH with a Hey (סְנֶה) in Exodus 3:2 and Deuteronomy 33:16, both of which are thorn-bushes, or possibly thorn-hedges, and there is SENEH with an Aleph, as here, which may or may not be an Aramaic spelling of the same word - the Aleph-Hey variation is pretty standard between the two languages, with perhaps a feminine Hey added here.
1 Samuel 14:4 is our next place to look, the image of the thorn suggesting the image of a tooth, either way the shrap pointed crag of a hill near Gav'a, facing a second craggy peak, beside Michmash, the former known as Seneh (סְנֶה), the latter as Botsets - about three miles north of Yeru-Shala'im, on the road to Beit-El, in what is now called Wadi al-Suwaynīt.
The Beney Sena'ah are mentioned in Ezra 2:35, spelled exactly as here, and Nechem-Yah will include them in his list of the Beney Yisra-El who returned with Zeru-Bavel in 7:38, so we are again in the same place that we were with the men of Yerecho: were they Yeru-Shala'im-based returnees, who had taken the name of their village as their family name, or were there Yehudim from around Michmash and Gav'a who came to assist with the work? Both are possible.
samech break
3:4 VE AL YADAM HECHEZIK MEREMOT BEN URI-YAH BEN HA KOTS {ס} VE AL YADAM HECHEZIK MESHULAM BEN BERECH-YAH BEN MESHEYZAV-EL {ס} VE AL YADAM HECHEZIK TSADOK BEN BA'AN'A {ס}
וְעַל יָדָם הֶחֱזִיק מְרֵמוֹת בֶּן אוּרִיָּה בֶּן הַקּוֹץ וְעַל יָדָם הֶחֱזִיק מְשֻׁלָּם בֶּן בֶּרֶכְיָה בֶּן מְשֵׁיזַבְאֵל וְעַל יָדָם הֶחֱזִיק צָדוֹק בֶּן בַּעֲנָא
KJ: And next unto them repaired Meremoth the son of Urijah, the son of Koz. And next unto them repaired Meshullam the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabeel. And next unto them repaired Zadok the son of Baana.
BN: And next to them Meremot ben Uri-Yah ben Ha Kots undertook the strengthening work. And next to them [him] Meshulam ben Berech-Yah ben Mesheyzav-El undertook the strengthening work. And next to them Tsadok ben Ba'an'a undertook the strengthening work.
HECHEZIK: the same root that yields Chizki-Yah (Hezekiah), the Prophet; usually translated as "repaired", but the root is about "strength"; I think that Nechem-Yah is making a distinction between sections of wall that have vanished altogether, and for which he uses VANU = "to build", and HECHEZIK for those sections of which something still remained, but which needed strengthening. The normal verb for "repairing" would be LETAKEN, and it is possible (but remotely so) that he is avoiding that verb because it has religious connotations that are not relevant here - the concept of Tikkun Olam.
MEREMOT BEN URI-YAH: I wonder if this is the same priest who was given the honour of weighing the silver and gold brought from Persia in Ezra 8:33. There is no mention of his being BEN HA KOTS in that text. URI-YAH is of course a very famous name, but one from much earlier history - David arranged for Uri-Yah the Beney Chet to lead the assault on Rabah (2 Samuel 11), knowing he would likely die in doing so, and thereby leaving his widowed wife Bat Sheva free to marry, after a devent period of mourning, obviously. The mother of King Shelomoh, eventually.
BEN HA KOTS: And for a third time; is it Ha Kots, or Hakots? Funny that we should have had a Seneh and then a Kots - both of them types of thorn (cf Genesis 3:18). And is there a name missing between the two "BEN"s? HECHEZIK is singular, and it is unusual to name both the father and the grandfather. The same applies for the next pair of "BEN"s, except that here YADAM refers back to the Meremot, and YADAM is definitely plural, infering that there are two men, Meremot ben Uri-Yah and "missing name" ben Ha Kots - the explanation for my square bracket in the transliteration.
MESHULAM BEN BERECH-YAH: Yet one more of those names whose root is SALM, just like King Shelomoh and David's son Av-Shalom, and Yeru-Shala'im itself.
BEN MESHEYZAV-EL: Unusual at this epoch to find El names; almost every name in both Ezra and Nechem-Yah is a Yah name - and Yah, the moon goddess, not YAHU, the patriarchalisation that will take place a century or more later.
Are these perhaps members of a guild, and the double-name renders the family and then the guild? Or their town - Teko'a in the next verse is well known as a town.
TSADOK BEN BA'AN'A: No third name on this occasion.
3 samech breaks
3:5 VE AL YADAM HECHEZIYKU HA TEKO'IM VE ADIYREYHEM LO HEVIY'U TSAVARAM BA AVODAT ADONEYHEM {ס}
וְעַל יָדָם הֶחֱזִיקוּ הַתְּקוֹעִים וְאַדִּירֵיהֶם לֹא הֵבִיאוּ צַוָּרָם בַּעֲבֹדַת אֲדֹנֵיהֶם
BN: And next to them the Teko'im strengthened the wall; and their nobles did not put their necks to the work of their Lord.
This is ambiguous; he could be praising the nobles for not making their slaves wear their work-collars, allowing them human dignity while they carried out this sacred task on their behalf; or I could be being unnecessarily over-generous to a bunch of work-shy spoiled brat aristocrats, and in fact he is criticising the nobles for standing around bone idle and superior while their servants did the labour, even while the Kohen Gadol and his priests were willing to take off their sanctimonious self-importance and get on with the task. I suspect the latter is intended, and hear in it the voice of Mosheh, similarly berating the people in the opening chapters of Deuteronomy (1:12 will make a good starting-point!).
TEKO'IM: The woman of Teko'a was a brilliant device employed by the king's nephew Yo-Av (2 Samuel 14) to persuade David to bring Av-Shalom back to court and do some fence-mending. The town was located about twelve miles south of Yeru-Shala'im.
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TEKO'IM: The woman of Teko'a was a brilliant device employed by the king's nephew Yo-Av (2 Samuel 14) to persuade David to bring Av-Shalom back to court and do some fence-mending. The town was located about twelve miles south of Yeru-Shala'im.
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3:6 VE ET SHA'AR HA YESHANAH HECHEZIKU YO'YAD'A BEN PAS'E'ACH U MESHULAM BEN BESOD-YAH HEMAH KERUHU VA YA'AMIYDU DALTOTAV U MAN'ULAV U VERIYCHAV {ס}
וְאֵת שַׁעַר הַיְשָׁנָה הֶחֱזִיקוּ יוֹיָדָע בֶּן פָּסֵחַ וּמְשֻׁלָּם בֶּןבְּסוֹדְיָה הֵמָּה קֵרוּהוּ וַיַּעֲמִידוּ דַּלְתֹתָיו וּמַנְעֻלָיו וּבְרִיחָיו
KJ: Moreover the old gate
repaired Jehoiada the son of Paseah, and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah; they
laid the beams thereof, and set up the doors thereof, and the locks thereof,
and the bars thereof.
BN: And the gate of the old
city Yo'yad'a ben Pas'e'ach and Meshulam ben Besod-Yah repaired; they laid out its
beams, and set up its doors and its bolts and its bars.
SHA'AR HA YESHANAH: Gate of
the old city? Or the old gate? Could be either. There was a town named Yeshanah (1 Samuel 7:12, 2 Chronicles 13:19), just north of Beit-El, and it may be that the gate opened from the road that came from there. Josephus calls it Isanas (Ant., XIV, xv, 12); today it is known by its Arabic name, as Ein Sinia. The gate is mentioned again in Nehemiah 12:38 and 39:
"And a second welcoming-party was waiting to meet them, myself at their tail, with half of the people, on the wall above the Tower of the Furnaces, and all the way to the Broad Wall. And above the Gate of Ephrayim, and by the gate of the old city and by the Fish Gate, and the Tower of Chanan-El, and the Tower of the Hundred (Ha Me'ah), all the way to the Sheep Gate; and they came to a halt at the Gate of the Guard."
YO'YAD'A BEN PAS'E'ACH: Interesting name, Pas'e'ach, connected to the Passover festival, Pesach - the word means "limper" and had to do, originally, with the Egyptian earth-god Osher (Osiris) being gored in the thigh by his wicked uncle Set, disguised as a boar, as a result of which he limped. Cf Genesis 32 and John 19.
MESHULAM BEN BESOD-YAH: Two men with that name are mentioned in Ezra, one at 8:16, the other at 10:15, either of whom could be this Meshulam, but alas Ezra doesn't give their patronymic, or any other detail to make that connection. The other Meshulam, in Ezra 10:29, is a Ben Bani, so it definitely isn't him.
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3:7 VE AL YADAM HECHEZIK
MELAT-YAH HA GIV'ONI VE YADON HA MERONOTI ANSHEY GIV'ON VE HA MITSPAH LE CHIS'E
PACHAT EVER HA NAHAR
וְעַל יָדָם הֶחֱזִיק מְלַטְיָה הַגִּבְעֹנִי וְיָדוֹן הַמֵּרֹנֹתִי אַנְשֵׁי גִבְעוֹן וְהַמִּצְפָּה לְכִסֵּא פַּחַת עֵבֶר הַנָּהָר
KJ: And next unto them repaired Melatiah the Gibeonite, and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon, and of Mizpah, unto the throne of the governor on this side the river.
BN: Strengthening the section next to them was Melat-Yah the Giv'oni, and Yadon the Meronoti, men of Giv'on, and of Ha Mitspah, under the authority of the governor of the lands west of the Euphrates.
HECHEZIK: adding complication to my earlier note; here it is definitely a grammatical error ("was", where it should say "were"), the singular verb but a plurality of nouns.
MELAT-YAH HA GIV'ONI... YADON HA MERONOTI: Where others have been known by their patronymics, or possibly their craft-guild, or possibly their town of origin, these are known by the non-Yisrae-Eli nation to which they belong; does this assist us in understanding the double names in verse 4?
ANSHEY GIV'ON: where is the definite article that denotes other men? This appears simply to describe the two already named as "men of Giv'on and Ha Mitspah", rather than adding more to their twosome. The inference, and the closing phrase endorses it, is that people came from other key places in Yisra-El to assist with the work, Giv-On and Ha Mitspah being two of the most important shrines from the centuries before the captivity, though there may well have been more than one shrine named Ha Mitspah, or simply Mitspeh, given that the word simply means an observatory (a watchtower, but of the heavens, for astronomical purposes, where a Migdal is a watchtower for military purposes).
The Meronoti are therefore a sub-clan of the Beney Giv-On.
HA MITSPAH: a Mitspah is a watchtower, for which see the link. See verse 15, and assume this is the one intended here (which doesn't tell us where it is, but the reference to the steps down to the Hill of David allows us to assume it is the one on Tsi'on itself).
LE CHIS'E PACHAT EVER HA NAHAR: I don't like the translation, but the sense is right; and important too - where the previous governor joined the clamour to stop the building work (Ezra 4), this one has read the king's letter, and is providing the promised support.
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3:8 AL YADO HECHEZIK UZI-EL BEN CHARHA-YAH TSORPHIM {ס} VE AL YADO HECHEZIK CHANAN-YAH BEN HA RAKACHIM VA YA'AZVU YERU-SHALA'IM AD HA CHOMAH HA RECHAVAH {ס}
KJ: Next unto him repaired Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, of the goldsmiths. Next unto him also repaired Hananiah the son of one of the apothecaries, and they fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall.
BN: Next to him the goldsmith Uzi-El ben Charha-Yah strengthened a section of wall. And next to him Chanan-Yah, one of the perfumers, and these restored Yeru-Shala'im as far as the Broad Wall.
עַל יָדוֹ הֶחֱזִיק עֻזִּיאֵל בֶּן חַרְהֲיָה צוֹרְפִים וְעַל יָדוֹ הֶחֱזִיק חֲנַנְיָה בֶּן הָרַקָּחִים וַיַּעַזְבוּ יְרוּשָׁלִַם עַד הַחוֹמָה הָרְחָבָה
KJ: Next unto him repaired Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, of the goldsmiths. Next unto him also repaired Hananiah the son of one of the apothecaries, and they fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall.
BN: Next to him the goldsmith Uzi-El ben Charha-Yah strengthened a section of wall. And next to him Chanan-Yah, one of the perfumers, and these restored Yeru-Shala'im as far as the Broad Wall.
AL YADO...TSORPHIM: Singular, when it should be plural... plural, when it should be singular. GCSE classical Yehudit, D grade. Needs to spend more time working on his grammar. I strongly recommend a private tutor.
UZI-EL BEN CHARHA-YAH: On this occasion we can say for certain that these men belong to the crafts guilds (see my notes at verses 4 and 7), though there is dispute as to whether the Tsorphim were silversmiths (Judges 17:4, Psalm 66:10) or goldsmiths, as here or Isaiah 40:19. The answer is actually: "both" - the root is TSARAPH (cf Psalm 12:7), which means "to smelt".
CHANAN-YAH BEN HA RAKACHIM: Apothecaries or perfumiers? Like the silversmiths and the goldsmiths, probably the same craftsmen did both, because the same herbs and flowers lay at the base of both. The root, REKACH, also yields the word for "spices", and as a verb is used for seasoning food - cf Exodus 30:33, Ezekiel 24:10, 1 Samuel 8:13, many others.
YA'AZVU: I have never found it in this usage before; normally it means "abandoned", which is the precise opposite of the translation here. I wonder if Nechem-Yah has simply got his vocab mixed up, like his grammar.
CHOMAH HA RECHAVAH: The key defensive wall when Yeru-Shala'im survived the onslaught by Sennacherib in 721 BCE, rediscovered by archaeologists in the 1970s - click here for the historic, here for the biblical background.
And then wonder if Nechem-Yah isn't using the verb LECHAZEK, which really isn't the correct verb here, to make a deliberate historical allusion. From LECHAZEK to CHIZKI-YAH (Hezekiah) is the distance of a verb to a noun. Almost as if he is neologising a new verb, "to hezekiah".
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3:9 VE AL YADAM HECHEZIK REPHA-YAH VEN CHUR SAR CHATSI PELECH YERU-SHALA'IM {ס}
וְעַל יָדָם הֶחֱזִיק רְפָיָה בֶן חוּר שַׂר חֲצִי פֶּלֶךְ יְרוּשָׁלִָם
KJ: And next unto them repaired
Rephaiah the son of Hur, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem.
BN: And next to them the wall-strengthener was Repha-Yah ben Chur, the mayor of half of the district of Yeru-Shala'im.
REPHA-YAH BEN CHUR: The famous Ben Chur is not, of course, the one in the Torah, who held Mosheh's arms aloft in the battle against the Amelekites (Exodus 17:10), but the Roman soldier played by Charlton Heston in the 1959 movie.
The
inference of the description merits comment: by the name he was obviously a
Yehudi - and already "the ruler of half the district of
Yeru-Shala'im". See verse 12 for the ruler of the other half. It is unclear how geographically, or why politically, the city was divided.
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3:10 VE AL YADAM HECHEZIK
YEDA-YAH VEN CHARUMAPH VE NEGED BEITO {ס} VE AL YADO HECHEZIK CHATUSH BEN
CHASHAVNE-YAH
וְעַל יָדָם הֶחֱזִיק יְדָיָה בֶן חֲרוּמַף וְנֶגֶד בֵּיתוֹ וְעַל יָדוֹ הֶחֱזִיק חַטּוּשׁ בֶּן חֲשַׁבְנְיָה
BN: And next to them Yeda-Yah ben Charumaph strengthened the wall, right up to his own house. And next to
him Chatush ben Chashavne-Yah strengthened the wall.
VE AL YADAM: I think
Nechem-Yah is in the end just as sloppy with his use of language as Ezra. This
is plural, but only one man was mentioned in the verse this relates to, and
HECHEZIK there was also singular. This should be VE AL YADO.
There is a Yedah-Yah, "of the house of Yeshu'a", listed among those who came from Babylon with Zeru-Bavel, in Ezra 2:36.
CHATUSH BEN CHASHAVNE-YAH: Chatush means "assembled", which makes me wonder if this was a group of clerks from the accounts department, rather than a single man; Chashavne comes from Cheshbon, which means "accounts" - the Temple Levites coming out alongside the Temple priests. There is a Chatush, from the Beney David, listed among those who accompanied Ezra on his journey from Babylon, at Ezra 8:2.
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3:11 MIDAH SHENIT HECHEZIK
MALKI-YAH VEN CHARIM VE CHASHUV BEN PACHAT MO-AV VE ET MIGDAL HA TANURIM
מִדָּה שֵׁנִית הֶחֱזִיק מַלְכִּיָּה בֶן חָרִם וְחַשּׁוּב בֶּן פַּחַת מוֹאָב וְאֵת מִגְדַּל הַתַּנּוּרִים
BN: Malki-Yah ven Charim, and
Chashuv ben Pachat Mo-Av repaired the other side, and the Tower of the
Furnaces.
MIDAH SHENIT... MIGDAL HA TANURIM: Strange order, this sentence. The Midah and the Migdal go together, yet are separated.
The phrase MIDAH SHENIT is used repeatedly, and the meaning seems to shift slightly with different usages. I am wondering if, perhaps, the wall being quite thick in many places, we are not talking literally about its two sides, one person working on the inside, the other on the outside, their lines of brick or stone filled in with rubble in between.
HECHEZIK: And again singular, though there are two men named.
MALKI-YAH: makes for an interesting marriage-made-in-heaven, the god Moloch with the goddess Yah; Davidically interesting, because it unites his central shrine at Yeru-Shala'im with hers at Chevron.
VEN CHARIM: not for the first
time, I do not understand why it is VEN and not BEN. I seem to recall they were significant in Ezra's lists as well. The Beney Charim appear in Ezra's list at 2:32 and 2:39, and Malki-Yah appears by name at 10:31.
CHASHUV BEN PACHAT MO'AV: See Ezra 2:6, 8:4 and 10:30; Chashuv is not himself named among the Beney Pachat Mo'av and, given my attempt at 8:4 to explain what Pachat Mo-Av might be ("the overall impression from the many further usages of the name, in Ezra and Nechem-Yah, is that this was the family of the man appointed Governor of Mo-Av, in which case PHACHAT here has nothing to do with PACHAT, but must be a word of Persian origin") I think it entirely likely that Nechem-Yah doesn't know the man's name, and has simply called him CHASHUV, which means "important" - as in "some important bloke sent by the governor of Mo-Av".
TANURIM: "Furnaces" may be over-stating the matter. Probably these were the bread-ovens used by the city's bakers, rather than the smelting-furnaces used by the city's smiths, and definitely not connected with the Temple sacrifices, which did not use ovens or forges, but burned directly on the altar.
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3:12 VE AL YADO HECHEZIK SHALUM
BEN HA LOCHESH SAR CHATSI PELECH YERU-SHALA'IM HU U VENOTAV
וְעַל יָדוֹ הֶחֱזִיק שַׁלּוּם בֶּן הַלּוֹחֵשׁ שַׂר חֲצִי פֶּלֶךְ יְרוּשָׁלִָם הוּא וּבְנוֹתָיו
BN: The next section of strengthening work was undertaken by Shalum ben Ha Lochesh, the ruler of half the district of Yeru-Shala'im, he and his
daughters.
VE AL YADO: should be VE AL
YADAM.
SHALUM BEN HA LOCHESH: or perhaps
Halochesh, though it has far too many letters to be a Yehudit or even an Aramaic name. HA LOCHESH would mean "the whisperer". The Beney Shalum are listed among the Guild of Gatekeepers in Ezra 2:42, and a man by that name among the Proters in Ezra 10:24.
SAR: The word is usually translated as "prince", but they didn't have that sort of aristocracy among the Beney Yisra-El, and this is a Kohen or Levi with secular responsibilities, so it seems to me that "mayor" comes closer. His position, partnered by Repha-Yah ben Chur (see verse 9), infers that the Yehudim
have full control over the city of Yeru-Shala'im; which makes one wonder why the walls
didn't get built sooner. The answer lies in the Book of Ezra, where he describes the opposition (chapters 4 and 5), and the need for royal proofs out of Persia - such as Nechem-Yah has wisely brought with him. That control has only happened since Nechem-Yah's arrival, and the presence of dignitaries from Mo-Av and representatives of the "governor beyond the River" confirms it - though it will shortly be challenged nonetheless. But it also confirms that the men who came to him in Susa in chapter 1 must have been an official delegation sent from Yeru-Shala'im, precisely to get those proofs and support documents that Ezra described in his chapter 6.
U VENOTAV: sounds like Shalum's daughters are helping with the building work - either that or it means that
they have a hand in ruling half the city. Unusual either way. And yes, we can add Shulam to our ever-growing list of Salm names.
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3:13 ET SHA'AR HA GAI' HECHEZIK CHANUN VE YOSHVEY ZANO'ACH HEMAH VANUHU VA YA'AMIYDU DALTOTAV MAN'ULAV
U VERIYCHAV VE ELEPH AMAH BA CHOMAH AD SHA'AR HA SHEPHOT
אֵת שַׁעַר הַגַּיְא הֶחֱזִיק חָנוּן וְיֹשְׁבֵי זָנוֹחַ הֵמָּה בָנוּהוּ וַיַּעֲמִידוּ דַּלְתֹתָיו מַנְעֻלָיו וּבְרִיחָיו וְאֶלֶף אַמָּה בַּחוֹמָה עַד שַׁעַר הָשְׁפוֹת
BN: The Valley Gate was restored by Chanun and the inhabitants of Zano'ach; they built it, and set up its doors,
its bolts and its bars, plus a thousand cubits of the wall as far as the Dung
Gate.
SHA'AR HA GAI': see my note to Nechem-Yah 2:13.
HECHEZIK: I have gone for "restored" on this occasion because, to be honest, I am bored by the sameness of the repetition, and feel the need to make a variation; this one I justify by noting that you cannot strengthen something that has been ruined altogether, as clearly this has been. They are restoring it from zero, not from wreckage. The same applies in the next verse.
CHANUN: Several of these priestly names are reminiscent of the names taken by nuns and monks in the Middle Ages, Saint Clement, Fra Angelus, Sister Grace. CHANUN means "mercy" or "compassion" and is one of the Thirteen Attributes of the Jewish deity.
ZANO'ACH: Two towns are known to have borne this name, one mentioned in Joshua 15:34, the other in Joshua 15:56, and again in 1 Chronicles 4:18. The former is a dozen miles south-west of Yeru-Shala'im (see the map here), the latter much further south, beyond Chevron, about forty miles from Yeru-Shala'im.
HA SHEPHOT: Previously, and
in the next verse, HA ASHPOT (הָאַשְׁפּוֹת), not HE
SHEPHOT (א), the second-letter Aleph (הָשְׁפוֹת) being the difference. I think this is a scribal error,
and am surprised that it wasn't picked up by earlier scribes and the
alternative given an unpointed parenthesis (in the way that others are; eg the
missing final VAV on what should be YA'AMIYDU in verse 15). It is again ASHPOT in the next verse. This was the gate at which the garbage was dumped, both the human waste of falafel wrappers and chumus pots, but more importantly the camel and donkey dung deposited without concern for human hygiene, as untrained, uncivilised animals will tend to do - the dung then available as manure for the organic training of that rather more cultivated creature, the harvest.
3:14 VE ET SHA'AR HA ASHPOT
HECHEZIK MALKI-YAH VEN RECHAV SAR PELECH BEIT HA KAREM HU YIVNENU VE YA'AMID
DELATOTAV MAN'ULAV U VERIYCHAV
וְאֵת שַׁעַר הָאַשְׁפּוֹת הֶחֱזִיק מַלְכִּיָּה בֶןרֵכָב שַׂר פֶּלֶךְ בֵּית הַכָּרֶם הוּא יִבְנֶנּוּ וְיַעֲמִיד דַּלְתֹתָיו מַנְעֻלָיו וּבְרִיחָיו
BN: The Dung Gate itself was restored by Malki-Yah ben Rechav, the mayor of the district of Beit Ha Kerem; he built it,
and set up its doors, its bolts and its bars.
MALKI-YAH VEN RECHAV: I commented on the interesting mixing of god-names when the name appeared in verse 11, but this is even more interesting, because RECHAV adds the third great moon-city to our list of combined deities, Rahab of Yericho - much more at the link to her name.
BEIT HA KEREM: A Kerem is a vineyard, and the Beit would originally have been a shrine to the vine-god, maybe as little as a teraph set up at the gate like a gnome in a modern suburban garden. But towns develop around shrines, because pilgrims and priests need servicing - blacksmiths, plasterers, taverns, brothels, eventually schools and suburbs. As to which eventual town was it - click here and make up your own mind, but, given the contextof the two "mayors" of Yeru-Shala'im, my preference is for the neighborhood in west-central Yeru-Shala'im.
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3:15 VE ET SHA'AR HA AYIN
HECHEZIK SHALUN BEN KOL CHOZEH SAR PELECH HA MITSPAH HU YIVNENU VIY'TALELENU VE
YA'AMIDU DALTOTAV MAN'ULAV U VERIYCHAV VE ET CHOMAT BERECHAT HA SHELACH LE GAN
HA MELECH VE AD HA MA'ALOT HA YORDOT ME IR DAVID
וְאֵת שַׁעַר הָעַיִן הֶחֱזִיק שַׁלּוּן בֶּן כָּל חֹזֶה שַׂר פֶּלֶךְ הַמִּצְפָּה הוּא יִבְנֶנּוּ וִיטַלְלֶנּוּ ויעמידו (וְיַעֲמִיד) דַּלְתֹתָיו מַנְעֻלָיו וּבְרִיחָיו וְאֵת חוֹמַת בְּרֵכַת הַשֶּׁלַח לְגַן הַמֶּלֶךְ וְעַד הַמַּעֲלוֹת הַיּוֹרְדוֹת מֵעִיר דָּוִיד
VE ET SHA'AR: How many gates
does that make in total? Go back and count them/list then. How many are there
in today's Old City?
SHA'AR HA AYIN: mentioned, as was the King's Pool, in Nehemiah 2:14, when he undertook his night-time reconnoitre to assess the scale of the project.
SHALUN BEN KOL CHOZEH: What
sort of a name is that? Either part. Shalun is probably an error for Shalum, yet another Salm name. As to Kol Chozeh, is it, as most translations prefer, Kolchozeh, even though that doesn't mean anything, and has far too many letters to be a Yehudit root. Not that Kol Chozeh as two words means much either, KOL being "all" and CHOZEH the word for a "seer", though it is sometimes used for that more acceptable of creatures, the Prophet (cf 1 Samuel 9:9 where both usages are given). But what if this were another spelling error, because Nechem-Yah can't tell his Kuphs from his Kaphs; Kol Chozeh, "the voice of the Prophet" - a hint, maybe, that the one gap in this list that we will otherwise be obliged to note, is not in fact a gap at all - where is the Prophet and his followers? Why are they not on their knees with the Kohanim and Leviyim and the nobles and the hoi poloi? Perhaps they are.
And if they are, go and look again at verse 7 before you read my next note: where better to have your Prophet and his followers working, than on the very gate of the very people who are there as representatives of the governor himself? Nechem-Yah the future governor, doing very clever diplo-politics. (Not that Shalun is himself the Prophet - in Ezra and Nechem-Yah's time that was Mal'achi, who hasn't yet been mentioned. But the lay leader of the Guild, and the yeshiva bochers...)
HA MITSPAH: Every large town
had a watchtower, both for the call to prayer by trumpet (the origins of the
muezzin calling from the minaret lie here too, and the mediaeval "town crier"), and for the observation of the
planetary and constellatory diurnations and the risings and settings of the
moon and sun, and the morning and evening stars, etc. The original of this in Yeru-Shala'im would
have been the one that Tsadok was installed in by King David, on Tsi'on Hill
itself, taken over by David when he conquered the city, rather than built by
him (see 2 Samuel 5). Either two or three places named Ha Mitspah crop up in this chapter, starting at verse 7, which may also be this one; the one at verse 19 has to be a different one, because a different mayor is named.
VE YA'AMID[U]: see my note to HA SHEPHOT at verse 13; this relates to the square bracket in the Yehudit text, the Masoretic editor recognising (you see, it isn't just me!) the grammatical and/or spelling error in Nechem-Yah's original.
BERECHAT HA SHELACH: Yet another variant name for what Yesha-Yahu calls "the Pool of Shilo'ach" but is invariably rendered in English as "the waters of Shiloh (cf Isaiah 8:6); and elsewhere, as we have seen, is rendered as Shilo'a or Silo'am - see my extensive note to Nehemiah 2:13.
HA MA'ALOT HA YORDOT: The
absurdity of this piece of Yehudit cannot be rendered in English, unless we
were to invent a new English word for steps, and call them "go-ups"; now we
have it: the "go-ups that go down..."
IR DAVID: The city of David, which is not all of Yeru-Shala'im but... click here for the full picture; and then here for the specifics of the Mil'o (הַמִּלּ֖וֹא), the royal palace, for which see also 2 Samuel 5:7 ff.
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3:16 ACHARAV HECHEZIK
NECHEM-YAH VEN AZBUK SAR CHATSI PELECH BEIT TSUR AD NEGED KIVREY DAVID VE AD HA
BERECHAH HA ASUYAH VE AD BEIT HA GIBORIM
אַחֲרָיו הֶחֱזִיק נְחֶמְיָה בֶן עַזְבּוּק שַׂר חֲצִי פֶּלֶךְ בֵּית צוּר עַד נֶגֶד קִבְרֵי דָוִיד וְעַד הַבְּרֵכָה הָעֲשׂוּיָה וְעַד בֵּית הַגִּבֹּרִים
KJ: After him repaired Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, the ruler of the half part of Bethzur, unto the place over against the sepulchres of David, and to the pool that was made, and unto the house of the mighty.
BN: After him Nechem-Yah ben Azbuk, the ruler of half of the district of Beit Tsur, undertook the strengthening work as far as the point facing the sepulchres of David, and as far as the new pool that has been made, and the House of the Warriors.
ACHARAV: Temporal or spatial?
Spatial till now has always been AL YAD; so perhaps he desisted from the work
and Nechem-Yah ben Azbuk replaced him.
AZBUK: Lots of hypotheses in the world of Biblical scholarship, trying to place Yehudit meaning onto a word which, given that it has four root-letters and no root-connections, must be a non-Yehudit name.
BEIT TSUR: 2 Chronicles 11 includes it among the many towns that Rechav-Am (Rehoboam) fortified at the start of the civil war with Yerav-Am (Jeroboam), but alas gives no further information about its precise location; and the other reference to it, in 1 Chronicles 2:45, wants it to be the name of a person, which is thoroughly implausible given that Beit Tsur means "Shrine of the Rock", and thoroughly ironic, given that there is indeed a "Shrine of the Rock" in Yeru-Shala'im, built by the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik around 690 CE, right on the site of the destroyed Temple.
The use of the word PELECH here, based on its use previously in this chapter (verses 9, 12, 14), suggests that this was not the town of Beit Tsur anyway, but another of the districts of Yeru-Shala'im, and it may very well be the district surrounding the Temple that was intended.
HA BERACHAH HA ASUYAH: We
regularly find the translators ignoring the continuous forms of verbs, whether
in the past or the present, and insisting on fixing them - caused by a fundamental difference of concept between the two languages: in the Jewish world, there are only two types of action, those that have been completed, and those that have not yet been completed, but are either suspended or still in process. This is the former: the pool which "has been made"; a new pool, just constructed.
BEIT HA GIBORIM: An
equivalent, I imagine, of today's LOCAHAMEI HA GETA'OT museum, a cenotaph of
some kind, honouring the unknown or even perhaps the named and well-known
military heroes. Giborim means "heroes".
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3:17 ACHARAV HECHEZIK HE
LEVIYIM RECHUM BEN BANI AL YADO HECHEZIK CHASHAV-YAH SAR CHATSI PHELECH KE'ILAH
LE PHILKO
אַחֲרָיו הֶחֱזִיקוּ הַלְוִיִּם רְחוּם בֶּן בָּנִי עַל יָדוֹ הֶחֱזִיק חֲשַׁבְיָה שַׂר חֲצִי פֶלֶךְ קְעִילָה לְפִלְכּוֹ
KJ: After him repaired the Levites, Rehum the son of Bani. Next unto him repaired Hashabiah, the ruler of the half part of Keilah, in his part.
BN: After him the strengthening-work was undertaken by the Leviyim, Rechum ben Bani. And next to him the strengthening-work was undertaken by Chashav-Yah, the ruler of half the district of Ke'ilah, on behalf of his district.
LEVIYIM... RECHUM BEN BANI:
Leviyim is plural, but there is only one Rechum. If this was Ezra, where we
can hear him dictating off-hand to a secretary rather than scribing a
fastidious document, this could be interpretation-read as, "the next lot were
Levites - can't remember their names - oh yes, Rechum ben what's he called, Bani
- ruled half the district of Ke'ilah - well, his part of the district anyway." But generally Nechem-Yah doesn't have that tone.
RECHUM BEN BANI: Rechum as in RACHUM, another of the Thirteen Attributes, "compassion", another of the monk-like names that we saw with CHANUN in verse 13. A number of the sons of Bani are listed in Ezra 10:29, but Rechum is not one of them; perhaps this is a different Bani (there is a Rechum however, listed at Ezra 2:2, one of the first to return with Zeru-Bavel, and another in Ezra 4:8, one of the enemies of Zeru-Bavel who wrote to the Persian king to get the building-work stopped).
And why is it HE LEVIYIM in the Masoretic version, and not HA LEVIYIM?
CHASHAV-YAH: See my note to Chashavne-Yah at verse 10.
PHELECH: Unless my eyesight
is failing, this verse definitely gives the PEY without a dagesh, making it a
PHEY, where half a dozen verses above all have the dagesh. The Masoretic text
has hyphenated it to CHATSI, which creates a grammatical validation, but it hasn't
been hyphenated previously, so one or other version has to be an error - I am
pointing these errors out, partly for their own sake, because they are
obstacles to our full understanding of, and accurate translation of the text,
but also because Ezra, and Nechem-Yah even more so, were key figures in the establishment of
everything that led to the writing of the Torah in the form in which we have
it, and so, if their own writings are full of grammatical, syntactical and
spelling errors (perhaps because neither of them were terribly fluent in
Yehudit, having grown up in Aramaic and probably had Pharsi as their second
language), then we have this context to help us with many of the similar
problems, especially in the Torah.
KE'ILAH: Like Beit Tsur, Ke'ilah is a town that comes up frequently in the Tanach - click here for the list - but the sense here is that it is not the town at all, but a district of Yeru-Shala'im. Either that, or Nechem-Yah has managed, within just three days of arriving in the city, not only to complete his reconnoitre and work-plan, but to galvanise the Yehudi populace from all around the land; quite an achievement if it is the case.
samech break
3:18 ACHARAV HECHEZIYKU
ACHEYHEM BAVAI BEN CHENADAD SAR CHATSI PELECH KE'ILAH
אַחֲרָיו הֶחֱזִיקוּ אֲחֵיהֶם בַּוַּי בֶּן חֵנָדָד שַׂר חֲצִי פֶּלֶךְ קְעִילָה
KJ: After him repaired their brethren, Bavai the son of Henadad, the ruler of the half part of Keilah.
BN: Next to him, the strengthening work was undertaken by their brethren, Bavai ben Chenadad, the ruler of the other half of the district of Ke'ilah.
ACHEYHEM is plural, HECHEZIKU
is plural, BAVAI BEN CHENADAD is singular - what am I missing? There is a
samech break, but is it possible that the samech break is itself the mistake,
and that the plural picks up the name(s) that follow in the verse beyond the
break - or not an error, but being used in a different convention than the one
we are used to, paragraphing to denote a list rather than a change of theme or
subject?
ACHEYHEM: Brothers or
kinsmen?
BAVAI BEN CHENADAD: No known Yehudit source for Bavai; Gesenius reckons it was probably of Persian origin. The Beney Chenadad are mentioned in Ezra 3:9 amongst those who rebuilt these walls with Zeru-Bavel seventy years before. The name is interesting because, as with Malki-Yah previously, it carries an attribute of the Yisra-Eli deity, the CHEN that means "grace" and gives us Hannah, but also ADAD, which is most likely a form of the god HADAD, sometimes rendered as Ba'al-Hadad, the Aramaean storm-god.
CHATSI PELECH: I should have
commented on this earlier: that it is interesting to learn from this how city
administration was conducted, the whole divided into Pelachim, which I presume were the equivalent of London Boroughs or New York wards, and each Pelech then apparently divided in half - keeping power as local, and as limited, as possible, the best way, surely, to run any society.
samech break
3:19 VA YECHAZEK AL YADO EZER
BEN YESHU'A SAR HA MITSPAH MIDAH SHENIT MI NEGED ALOT HA NESHEK HA MIKTSO'A
וַיְחַזֵּק עַל יָדוֹ עֵזֶר בֶּן יֵשׁוּעַ שַׂר הַמִּצְפָּה מִדָּה שֵׁנִית מִנֶּגֶד עֲלֹת הַנֶּשֶׁק הַמִּקְצֹעַ
KJ: And next to him repaired Ezer the son of Jeshua, the ruler of Mizpah, another piece over against the going up to the armoury at the turning of the wall.
BN: And strengthening the wall next to him, was Ezer ben Yeshu'a, the ruler of Ha Mitspah; but on the other side, the one facing the ascent to the armoury at the buttress.
VA YECHAZEK: Again Nechem-Yah changes the word-order very slightly, though he is still saying the same thing. Why not just make a list instead of feeling the need to construct (or do I mean strengthen, build, restore?) a narrative?
EZER BEN YESHU'A: The name Yeshu'a comes up as one of the very first in the list of those who accompanied Zeru-Bavel from Babylon (Ezra 2:2), and then as a virtual tribe of Kohanim at 2:36, and then again as a group of Leviyim in 2:38 - so this is simply a very common name, and nothing else is said about him here.
HA MITSPAH: see my note to verse 7.
MIDAH SHENIT: See my note to verse 11. This seems to confirm that it was a thick wall, and different people worked each side of it.
ALOT HA NESHEK: I have left
in the conventional translation, because it amuses me to see how stuck in text
and lacking in imagination so many translators manage to be. Picture it and the
translation is obvious. An "alot" is a way up, not "steps", because we saw the word
for that above; a steep hill, a cliff path, "Armoury Way".
HA MIKTSO'A: Yes, it may well be an angled corner, a point of "turning" for the wall; but it is the translation which, on this occasion, needs strengthening: buttress. "A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral forces arising out of the roof structures that lack adequate bracing." Even Wikipedia gets that right!(The illustration shows the rather more sophisticated buttresses at York Minster)
3:20 ACHARAV HECHERAH
HECHEZIK BARUCH BEN ZVI [ZAKAI] MIDAH SHENIT MIN HA MIKTSO'A AD PETACH BEIT EL-YASHIV
HA KOHEN HA GADOL
אַחֲרָיו הֶחֱרָה הֶחֱזִיק בָּרוּךְ בֶּן זבי [זַכַּ֖י] מִדָּה שֵׁנִית מִן הַמִּקְצוֹעַ עַדפֶּתַח בֵּית אֶלְיָשִׁיב הַכֹּהֵן הַגָּדוֹל
KJ: After him Baruch the son of Zabbai earnestly repaired the other piece, from the turning of the wall unto the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest.
BN: After him Baruch ben Zvi (ben Zakai) fastidiously repaired another portion, from the buttress to the door of the house of El-Yashiv the High Priest.
HECHERAH: The personal touch,
the sense that Nechem-Yah knew these men, watched them work, heard them moan
about other workers, bothered to defend them in the archives (even though he still wasn't quite sure of their names!). Or perhaps it is just a way of saying that the repairs on this stretch of wall were more demanding than elsewhere.
EL-YASHIV: Did we already
know that this was the name of the High Priest? Yes, in verse 1 of this chapter. But not, oddly enough, in Ezra, who never names him. Ezra 10:6 refers to a Yeho-Chanan ben El-Yashiv, into whose cell at the now-finished Temple he takes himself for a moment of silent reflection - possibly the son of the Kohen Gadol, or just the coincidence of a fairly common name. Nehemiah 12 (verses 10-22) will give us what scholars believe is a full list of the Kohanim from Zeru-Bavel onwards:
10: Yeshu'a fathered Yo-Yakim, and Yo-Yakim fathered El-Yashiv, and El-Yashiv Yo-Yad'a... 11: And Yo-Yada fathered Yo-Natan and Yo-Natan fathered Yadu'a... 22: The Leviyim in the days of El-Yashiv, Yo-Yad'a, and Yo-Chanan, and Yadu'a were recorded heads of clans; also the Kohanim, during the reign of Dar-Yavesh the Parsi.All of which would also have to cover a period of time way longer than Nechem-Yah's life, the period from Zeru-Bavel onwards indeed, and the Dar-Yavesh in question would therefore have to be Darius III, also known as Artashasta (just to add another layer of potential confusion to this entire tale!) - it was probably his birth-name, in honour of Artaxerxes I, and Darius was the king-name that he took at coronation. So not only can't it be a lineage of high priests, but it can't have been written by Nechem-Yah either. I leave my reader to puzzle all that out "hecherah".
samech break
3:21 ACAHARAV HECHEZIK
MEREMOT BEN URI-YAH BEN HA KOTS MIDAH SHENIT MI PETACH BEIT EL-YASHIV VE AD
TACHLIT BEIT EL-YASHIV
אַחֲרָיו הֶחֱזִיק מְרֵמוֹת בֶּן אוּרִיָּה בֶּן הַקּוֹץ מִדָּה שֵׁנִית מִפֶּתַח בֵּית אֶלְיָשִׁיב וְעַד תַּכְלִית בֵּית אֶלְיָשִׁיב
KJ: 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.
BN: After him Meremot Ben Ur-Yah ben Ha Kots, another section, from the door of El-Yashiv's house to the end of El-Yashiv's house.
BN: After him Meremot Ben Ur-Yah ben Ha Kots, another section, from the door of El-Yashiv's house to the end of El-Yashiv's house.
MEREMOT BEN BEN URI-YAH BEN HA
KOTS: I'm sure we've heard that name before too. Yes, at verse 2, when he was repairing the wall in the area around the Fish Gate; and we are now at the absolute opposite end, at the... let me put that map in that I used at Nehemiah 1...
But does that mean there are two men with the same name and patronymic, and either the same grandfather or from the same Guild? Or did he finish his work at the Fish Gate, and has now come down to here?
BEIT EL-YASHIV: Which not only tells us that the
home of the Kohen Gadol was built into the city wall, as the Book of Numbers prescribes, but its precise location, on this south-eastern stretch. The key to the Numbers text is the terrain outside the wall at this point: no use rocks and cliffs, because the Levites who are blemished may not serve in the Temple, but being Levites cannot work in secular jobs, so they require a garden, even a paddock, an orchard, where they can provision themselves and their families. The source text is Numbers 18:20-24, for the principle that was applied in the desert and which would be replicated in the Temple, Numbers 35:2-5 ff for the "suburban areas" and the "thousand cubits" (about 1500 feet) of "open land" immediately beyond the wall.
The way this chapter is set out is extremely useful for my "Walking Tour of Yeru-Shala'im", due for publication very soon, because he is taking us methodically from place to place. Start the London Roman Wall at the Museum of London, Salter's Hall on your right, then St Alphage's Garden on your left... all the way to St Mary Axe and Aldgate and the Tower of London...
The way this chapter is set out is extremely useful for my "Walking Tour of Yeru-Shala'im", due for publication very soon, because he is taking us methodically from place to place. Start the London Roman Wall at the Museum of London, Salter's Hall on your right, then St Alphage's Garden on your left... all the way to St Mary Axe and Aldgate and the Tower of London...
samech break
3:22 VE ACHARAV HECHEZIK HA
KOHANIM ANSHEY HA KIKAR
וְאַחֲרָיו הֶחֱזִיקוּ הַכֹּהֲנִים אַנְשֵׁי הַכִּכָּר
KJ: And after him repaired the priests, the men of the plain.
BN: And after him the priests, the men of the Plain.
And logical that the Kohanim
would be building this section of wall; a great honour to have personally mixed
the mortar for the Kohen Gadol's abode.
HECHEZIK: I apologise, but I am so bored with it, I have simply left it out on this occasion.
HECHEZIK: I apologise, but I am so bored with it, I have simply left it out on this occasion.
ANSHEY HA KIKAR: Is that like AM HA ARETS, a euphemism for "peasants"? Or does this mean that these priests were not Yeru-Shala'im priests, but the ones who had gone out, or would be going out, to the Levitical cities, the distant shrines?
3:23 ACHARAV HECHEZIK
BIN-YAMIN VE CHASHUV NEGED BEITAM {ס} ACHARAV HECHEZIK AZAR-YAH VEN MA'ASEY-YAH BEN
ANAN-YAH ETSEL BEITO {ס}
אַחֲרָיו הֶחֱזִיק בִּנְיָמִן וְחַשּׁוּב נֶגֶד בֵּיתָם אַחֲרָיו הֶחֱזִיק עֲזַרְיָה בֶן מַעֲשֵׂיָה בֶּן עֲנָנְיָה אֵצֶל בֵּיתוֹ
KJ: After him repaired Benjamin and Hashub over against their house. After him repaired Azariah the son of Maaseiah the son of Ananiah by his house.
BN: After them repaired Bin-Yamin and Chashuv over against their house. After them repaired Azar-Yah ven Ma'asey-Yah ben Anan-Yah beside his house.
ACHARAV: should be ACHAREYHEM, the priests were plural - Nechem-Yah's Yehudit really wouldn't pass the Bagrut sometimes.
BIN-YAMIN VE CHASHUV: no patronymics, and no mention of a Bin-Yamin previously to allow us to assume the father's name. Chashuv has been mentioned previously; see my note to verse 11; it may very well be the same man, moved on to a new job, and the fact that he is repairing his own house adds weight to this. The best houses in town were the ones built into the wall, and highly probable therefore that the Embassies and government buildings would be among them.
The best, but also, of course, the worst - in time of siege. Limited garden too in this part of town, because of the priestly requirement But next-door to the KG has status - and
the upper wall has great views; and the guards at the gates protect them; and
the markets are in the gate - which is good for the convenience, but bad for the
noise and the smells and the crowds...
MA'ASEY-YAH BEN ANAN-YAH: Ezra 10:18 has a Ma'asey-Yah ben Yo-Tsadak, 10:21 a Ma'asey-Yah ben Charim, and 10:22 a Ma'asey ben Pash'chur, any one of whom could well be this man despite the patronymic being different; ben Yo-Tsadak and ben Charim and ben Pash'chur identify them as members of particular schools of priests. More likely though, he is the Ma'asey-Yah mentioned in Ezra 10:30, because that one is ben Pachat-Mo-Av, and here he is strengthening the wall on which his own house stands, next to, or even possibly the same house, as Chashuv.
samech breaks mid-sentence and
at the end.
3:24 ACHARAV HECHEZIK BINU'I
BEN CHENADAD MIDAH SHENIT MI BEIT AZAR-YAH AD HA MIKTSO'A VE AD HA PINAH
אַחֲרָיו הֶחֱזִיק בִּנּוּי בֶּן חֵנָדָד מִדָּה שֵׁנִית מִבֵּית עֲזַרְיָה עַד הַמִּקְצוֹעַ וְעַד הַפִּנָּה
KJ: After him repaired Binnui the son of Henadad another piece, from the house of Azariah unto the turning of the wall, even unto the corner.
BN: After him repaired Binu'i ben Chenadad, another section, from Azar-Yah's house to the Turning and as far as the corner.
BINU'I: A Binu'i is mentioned in Ezra 8:33, but as a patronymic; oddly there is a Binu'i ben Pachat-Mo-Av mentioned in Ezra 10:30, as a brother of Ma'asey-Yah, but it is not that Binu'i who is building here, even though it appears to be the house next-door.
BEN CHENEDAD: The Beney Chenedad are among those picked out for mention in Ezra 3:9 as the principal workers on the rebuilding of the Temple under Zeru-Bavel.
3:25 PALAL BEN UZAI MI NEGED
HA MIKTSO'A VE HA MIGDAL HA YOTS'E MI BEIT HA MELECH HA ELYON ASHER LA CHATSAR
HA MATARAH ACHARAV PEDA-YAH VEN PAR'OSH
פָּלָל בֶּן אוּזַי מִנֶּגֶד הַמִּקְצוֹעַ וְהַמִּגְדָּל הַיּוֹצֵא מִבֵּית הַמֶּלֶךְ הָעֶלְיוֹן אֲשֶׁר לַחֲצַר הַמַּטָּרָה אַחֲרָיו פְּדָיָה בֶן פַּרְעֹשׁ
KJ: Palal the son of Uzai, over against the turning of the wall, and the tower which lieth out from the king's high house, that was by the court of the prison. After him Pedaiah the son of Parosh.
BN: Palal ben Uzai repaired over against the Turning, and the tower that projects from the upper house of the king, which is by the court of the guard. After him Peda-Yah ben Par'osh repaired.
Nechem-Yah's verses are, as we have seen, a sequential map of the wall; so we just had the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest, followed by two houses and a tower, and then the palace - so those two houses definitely must
have been high status people. But it also leaves the "Turning" well behind us - or does it? Look again at the map at verse 21; it may not be the full 90 degrees, as at the Dung and Fountain Gates, but there is a bend at least, going north-west up to the Water Gate, but north-east after it; and we will reach the Water Gate in the very next verse.
PALAL BEN UZAI: Yet again a name that pobably wasn't a name, but a title - and Nechem-Yah may well not have known, or simply not remembered, his actual name. 1 Samuel 2:25 tells us that "If one man sin against another, Elohim will judge him", the verb for judgement being PILELU, the same root which, in the Hitpa'el form, the "reflective", gives LEHITPALEL, which means "to pray" (interesting that prayer is really a process of self-reflectiveness, of inward self-judging). Given the general location in which this house is set, it seems a fair bet that Palal ben Uzai was one of the judges, and ben Uzai the Chambers, though whether he was building his private house, the building that contained the Chambers, or the Law Courts themselves, is a matter for speculation. Quite possibly all three.
PEDA-YAH: Unmentioned in Ezra, the name comes up three times in Nechem-Yah. First here. Then in 8:4, where Ezra opens the newly created Torah in public for the first time, and right there where this Peda-Yah is building, in the entrance to the Water Gate - though the text only gives first names for those who are standing with Ezra, with the inference that they are his fellow-scribes. The third Peda-Yah appears in 13:13, a dozen years later when Nechem-Yah came back as governor; this one is named as a Levite, and he is appointed as one of the supervisors for the storerooms at the Temple.
BEN PAR'OSH: The clan is listed in Ezra 2:3 among those who returned from Babylon with Zeru-Bavel, though Ezra 8:3 calls them Beney Phar'osh, which is probably grammatically more correct. Sadly no less than seven of these Beney Par'osh appear on the list of those who had "married out", at Ezra 10:25.
PEDA-YAH: Unmentioned in Ezra, the name comes up three times in Nechem-Yah. First here. Then in 8:4, where Ezra opens the newly created Torah in public for the first time, and right there where this Peda-Yah is building, in the entrance to the Water Gate - though the text only gives first names for those who are standing with Ezra, with the inference that they are his fellow-scribes. The third Peda-Yah appears in 13:13, a dozen years later when Nechem-Yah came back as governor; this one is named as a Levite, and he is appointed as one of the supervisors for the storerooms at the Temple.
BEN PAR'OSH: The clan is listed in Ezra 2:3 among those who returned from Babylon with Zeru-Bavel, though Ezra 8:3 calls them Beney Phar'osh, which is probably grammatically more correct. Sadly no less than seven of these Beney Par'osh appear on the list of those who had "married out", at Ezra 10:25.
3:26 VE HA NETIYNIM HAYU
YOSHVIM BA OPHEL AD NEGED SHA'AR HA MAYIM LA MIZRACH VE HA MIGDAL HA YOTS'E
וְהַנְּתִינִים הָיוּ יֹשְׁבִים בָּעֹפֶל עַד נֶגֶד שַׁעַר הַמַּיִם לַמִּזְרָח וְהַמִּגְדָּל הַיּוֹצֵא
KJ: Moreover the Nethinims dwelt in Ophel, unto the place over against the water gate toward the east, and the tower that lieth out.
BN: Now the Netiynim dwelt on the hill of Ophel, as far as the point opposite the water gate and the projecting tower on the eastern side.
NETIYNIM: Ezra includes them in 2:58, alongside "the descendants of Shelomoh's servants", among those who accompanied Zeru-Bavel. Where the latter were former slaves who had become citizenised but nonetheless continued to do the lowly jobs, the former were Beney Yisra-El with professional skills, who served the Temple in a variety of capacities, from craftsmen to maintenance crews, from clerks to cooks.
OPHEL: Ophel is one of the seven
hills that make up the conurbation of Yeru-Shala'im, so inhabiting Ophel means
inhabiting the hill - the point about the east side being that Ophel is part
of the Eastern Hill that sits between the City of David and the Temple Mount (click here to
see a map showing it precisely; though be aware that the angle of the map is turned 90 degrees from the one at verse 21, above).
There is no suggestion in this verse that the Netiynim were involved in the work on the wall; merely Nechem-Yah has pointed out where they were housed.
samech break
3:27 ACAHARAV HECHEZIYKU HE
TEKO'IM MIDAH SHENIT MI NEGED HA MIGDAL HA GADOL HA YOTS'E VE AD CHOMAT HA
OPHEL
אַחֲרָיו הֶחֱזִיקוּ הַתְּקֹעִים מִדָּה שֵׁנִית מִנֶּגֶד הַמִּגְדָּל הַגָּדוֹל הַיּוֹצֵא וְעַד חוֹמַת הָעֹפֶל
KJ: After them the Tekoites repaired another piece, over against the great tower that lieth out, even unto the wall of Ophel.
BN: After him the Teko'im repaired another section, from opposite the large projecting tower as far as the Ophel Wall.
TEKO'IM: Who have already built one section of wall, for which see verse 5. No wonder he got the job done as quickly as he did, with people working in virtual relays like this.
The samech breaks are becoming sloppy too (not Nechem-Yah's fault on this occasion; they were added by the Masoretes later on). 24 lacked one, though I felt no need to mention it, having pointed out the problem at verse 22; but here again it is missed, so I am mentioning it again.
3:28 ME AL SHA'AR HA SUSIM HECHEZIYKU HA KOHANIM ISH LE NEGED BEITO
BN: Above the horse gate the priests undertook the repairwork, each one on the side facing his own house.
BN: After them Tsadok ben Imer strengthened the wall opposite his own house; and after him Shem'a-Yah ven Shechan-Yah, the keeper of the east gate.
ACHARAV: Should be ACHAREYHEM, plural.
BN: Next to him Chanan-Yah ben Shelem-Yah, and Chanun the sixth son of Tsalaph, strengthened another section. {S} After him [them?] Meshulam ben Berech-Yah strengthened the section opposite the finance office. {S}
BN: And next to him Malki-Yah, one of the goldsmiths, who strengthened the wall as far as the house of the Netiynim and the Rochlim, right up to the gate of Ha Miphkad, and the upper part of the corner.
no samech break again.
3:28 ME AL SHA'AR HA SUSIM HECHEZIYKU HA KOHANIM ISH LE NEGED BEITO
מֵעַל שַׁעַר הַסּוּסִים הֶחֱזִיקוּ הַכֹּהֲנִים אִישׁ לְנֶגֶד בֵּיתוֹ
KJ: From above the horse gate repaired the priests, every one over against his house.
BN: Above the horse gate the priests undertook the repairwork, each one on the side facing his own house.
Just as it was logical for
the Kohen Gadol's house to be built into the wall, and thereby to open onto
Levitical land, so too for the remainder of the Kohanim; but also that it should be at this point of the wall, imemdiately adjacent to the Temple complex.
samech break
3:29 ACHARAV HECHEZIK TSADOK
BEN IMER NEGED BEITO {ס} VE ACHARAV HECHEZIK SHEM'A-YAH VEN SHECHAN-YAH SHOMER
SHA'AR HA MIZRACH
אַחֲרָיו הֶחֱזִיק צָדוֹק בֶּן אִמֵּר נֶגֶד בֵּיתוֹ וְאַחֲרָיו הֶחֱזִיק שְׁמַעְיָה בֶן שְׁכַנְיָה שֹׁמֵר שַׁעַר הַמִּזְרָח
KJ: After them repaired Zadok the son of Immer over against his house. After him repaired also Shemaiah the son of Shechaniah, the keeper of the east gate.
BN: After them Tsadok ben Imer strengthened the wall opposite his own house; and after him Shem'a-Yah ven Shechan-Yah, the keeper of the east gate.
ACHARAV: Should be ACHAREYHEM, plural.
TSADOK BEN IMER: Another of the families that returned with Zeru-Bavel, in Ezra 2:37. 10:20 names two of them among those who married out.
NEGED BEITO: I wonder if we shouldn't read that as being literally opposite: the wall on one side of the street, with the houses of the Kohanim set in it, or the watch-towers, the gates, the palace; and these rich-men's houses on the other side of the street, gaining the status of vicinity, opening into the city, but not on Levitical land.
NEGED BEITO: I wonder if we shouldn't read that as being literally opposite: the wall on one side of the street, with the houses of the Kohanim set in it, or the watch-towers, the gates, the palace; and these rich-men's houses on the other side of the street, gaining the status of vicinity, opening into the city, but not on Levitical land.
And does that
also render the wall itself an aspect of Levitical land? Because, if yes, it
would make a siege problematic for the superstititious, even the non-Yehudi
superstitious. Which would, of course, add one more very good reason for putting the clergy-houses in the wall! Human superstition-shields!
SHEM'A-YAH VEN SHECHAN-YAH: see Ezra 8:3
SHA'AR HA MIZRACH: Which
confirms that Nechem-Yah is not just taking us on a sequential tour of the city, but a spiritual one, moving eastwards, closing in on the Temple.
samech break in mid-verse and
at the end.
3:30 ACHAREY [ACHARAV] HECHEZIK
CHANAN-YAH VEN SHELEM-YAH VE CHANUN BEN TSALAPH HA SHISHI MIDAH SHENI {ס} ACHARAV
HECHEZIK MESHULAM BEN BERECH-YAH NEGED NISHKATO {ס}
אחרי (אַחֲרָיו) הֶחֱזִיק חֲנַנְיָה בֶן שֶׁלֶמְיָה וְחָנוּן בֶּן צָלָף הַשִּׁשִּׁי מִדָּה שֵׁנִי אַחֲרָיו הֶחֱזִיק מְשֻׁלָּם בֶּן בֶּרֶכְיָה נֶגֶד נִשְׁכָּתוֹ
KJ: After him repaired Hananiah the son of Shelemiah, and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph, another piece. After him repaired Meshullam the son of Berechiah over against his chamber.
BN: Next to him Chanan-Yah ben Shelem-Yah, and Chanun the sixth son of Tsalaph, strengthened another section. {S} After him [them?] Meshulam ben Berech-Yah strengthened the section opposite the finance office. {S}
ACHAREY...HECHEZIK: I find myself imaging Nechem-Yah, or his scribe, puzzling over this point of grammar, desperately uncertain whether Acharav is even correct, let alone "should I be pluralising it?". And finally, "I give up...leave it as ACHAREY." The same in the next verse. The bracket belongs to the Masoretes, not to me.
What is also wrong, yet
again, is HECHEZIK, which should again be plural, HECHEZIYKU, because two names follow.
CHANAN-YAH... CHANUN: The same name of course, just that the second has the goddess appended. There was a Chanan-Yah at verse 8, one of the apothecaries, and another at Ezra 10:28; yet a third will crop up in Nehemiah 7:2, the governor of the Citadel of Yeru-Shala'im who will be placed in joint charge of Yeru-Shala'im by Nechem-Yah. Another Chanun restored the Valley Gate at verse 13, but without a patronymic, so again this wonderful list that Nechem-Yah compiled so that the contributors to this holy project could be immortalised, sadly fails for many of its honorees.
VEN SHELEM-YAH: And yet one more Salm name - amazing how many variations they managed to come up with, just so that people could identify themselves with... either the city, or possibly the idealism. The full list can be found at the link.
TSALAPH: interests me,
because I have never been quite convinced that Tselaphchad (cf Numbers 26:33 through chapter 27, but for the full story you need to look at Numbers 36 as well, and then at Joshua 17; and you are going to need to look at it eventually, because the "inheritance rights" of Tselaphachad's daughters are central to the debate over "Who is a Jew?" and the whole business of the men who married out, and what happens now to the wives they are divorcing) is a Yehudit name, at least not in this form; that it
needed to be divided, that Tselaph and Chad are the logical split, but what do
they mean? And here we have Tsalaph.
MIDAH SHENI: See verses 11, 19,20 ...
MESHULAM BEN BERECH-YAH: I assume this is the same man that we met in verse 4, working near the Fish Gate.
NISHKATO: A rented apartment?
An office? A studio? His law chamber? We need the etymology, but the scholars can't agree on it. Gesenius says so explicitly: "the derivation is not clear. Some consider it to be transposed from SHECHINAH = "a dwelling"; I should rather regard it as the Persian verb for 'to sit down'." He then offers a Greek word, but rejects it. Surprisingly, given that he lists it among the references, he doesn't do what Strong does, which is to look at Nechem-Yah 12:44 and 13:7, in both of which the word is used for store-rooms rather than offices or living-spaces, and in the former it is quite specifically for the "treasures". And the Yehudit word for "treasures" is?.... NASHACH, which also yields NESHECH, the word for "lending at interest" ("usury" if you are a Catholic) in Exodus 22:24 et al. So it's obvious, really.
3:31 ACHAREY HECHEZIK
MALKI-YAH BEN HA TSORPHI AD BEIT HA NETIYNIM VE HA ROCHLIM NEGED SHA'AR HA
MIPHKAD VE AD ALIYAT HA PINAH
אחרי (אַחֲרָיו) הֶחֱזִיק מַלְכִּיָּה בֶּן הַצֹּרְפִי עַד בֵּית הַנְּתִינִים וְהָרֹכְלִים נֶגֶד שַׁעַר הַמִּפְקָד וְעַד עֲלִיַּת הַפִּנָּה
KJ: After him repaired Malchiah the goldsmith's son unto the place of the Nethinims, and of the merchants, over against the gate Miphkad, and to the going up of the corner.
BN: And next to him Malki-Yah, one of the goldsmiths, who strengthened the wall as far as the house of the Netiynim and the Rochlim, right up to the gate of Ha Miphkad, and the upper part of the corner.
MALKI-YAH: see my note to verse 11.
BEN HA TSORPHI: no question
here either that this is a guild (see my notes at verse 8), and we also have the Netiynim, the Rochlim - can we now go back through the Tanach and re-think some of those other BEN names; they are not always patronymics?
NETIYNIM: see my notes to verse 26.
ROCHLIM: "merchants" is the view of most of the etymologists, but I thought a SOCHAR was a merchant (Genesis 42:34, 1 Kings 10:28 et al), or the market where the goods were sold, or even the profits gained from selling it (Isaiah 23:3, 45:14). And that ROCHLIM were "slanderers", in the sense of people who go around making the goods of gossip available to anyone who is interested in acquiring it; but apparently it isn't just gossip that's on offer, not in Yechezke-El anyway - cf Ezekiel 27:13 ff for the merchant, 28:5 for the revenue.
HA MIPHKAD: And why do some translators insist on "Hammiphkad" as a name, when it is clearly a title too? On the map at verse 21 it is marked as the Inspection Gate - presumably caravans bringing merchandise into the city for the market were required to enter this way, whether for "customs duties", or for security checks., or simply to ensure that the city authorities knew who and how many were in the city; I make this latter assumption because the root means "numbering", as in 2 Samuel 24:9, though it also yields PEKUDAH, which could be any position of authority, as in Numbers 4:16, Isaiah 60:17 et al.
ALIYAT HA PINAH: Again see the map at verse 21; we are at the next "Turning", between the Inspection Gate and the Sheep Gate. on a hill-top that is only relatively a hilltop; because this is where the path set off through Ophel to the very summit of Mount Mor-Yah itself.
3:32 U VEYN ALIYAT HA PINAH
LE SHA'AR HA TSON HECHEZIYKU HA TSORPHIM VE HA ROCHLIM
וּבֵין עֲלִיַּת הַפִּנָּה לְשַׁעַר הַצֹּאן הֶחֱזִיקוּ הַצֹּרְפִים וְהָרֹכְלִים
KJ: And between the going up of the corner unto the sheep gate repaired the goldsmiths and the merchants.
BN: And between the cornerstone and the Sheep Gate the goldsmiths and the merchants undertook the wall-strengthening.
Do we take this at face-value? That they dirtied their own hands? Goldsmiths and merchants? "And between the cornerstone and the Sheep Gate, the goldsmiths and the merchants out-sourced the repairs to groups of migrant workers, hired on minimum wage contracts but with private agreement to pay less without 'additional services', or more with 'additional services', and a non-disclosure clause in the contract pertaining tothe nature of those 'additional services'." Does the Yehudit text allow for that interpretation?!
✡
Or, given that the chapter and verse system came from the Christian translators, perhaps it is the Yehudit versions which...
And, perhaps surprisingly, there is neither a Pey nor even a Samech break in the Yehudit versions to note this change of topic.
3:33 VA YEHI KA ASHER SHAM'A SANVALAT KI ANACHNU VONIM ET HA CHOMAH VA YICHAR LO VA YICH'AS HARBEH VA YAL'EG AL HA YEHUDIM
וַיְהִי כַּאֲשֶׁר שָׁמַע סַנְבַלַּט כִּי אֲנַחְנוּ בוֹנִים אֶת הַחוֹמָה וַיִּחַר לוֹ וַיִּכְעַס הַרְבֵּה וַיַּלְעֵג עַל הַיְּהוּדִים
KJ (4:1): But it came to pass, that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews.
BN: But it came to pass that, when Sanvalat heard that we were building the wall, he got angry, and then thoroughly indignant, and mocked the Yehudim.
BN: But it came to pass that, when Sanvalat heard that we were building the wall, he got angry, and then thoroughly indignant, and mocked the Yehudim.
SANVALAT: See Nehemiah 2:10.
HA YEHUDIM: As I have
commented previously, it is an anachronism to translate this as "the Jews";
there isn’t even a "J" sound in the "Hebrew" (Yehudit) alphabet.
VA YICHAR: Usually used of
YHVH; then, in full, YICHAR APH - "his nostrils inflated" - clench your teeth and breathe in hard through your nostrils, and you will experience VA YICHAR.
3:34 VA YOMER LIPHNEY ECHAV
VE CHEYL SHOMRON VA YOMER MAH HA YEHUDIM HA AMELALIM OSIM HA YA'AZVU LAHEM HA
YIZBACHU HA YECHALU VA YOM HA YECHAYU ET HA AVANIM ME AREMOT HE APHAR VE HEMAH
SERUPHOT
וַיֹּאמֶר לִפְנֵי אֶחָיו וְחֵיל שֹׁמְרוֹן וַיֹּאמֶר מָה הַיְּהוּדִים הָאֲמֵלָלִים עֹשִׂים הֲיַעַזְבוּ לָהֶם הֲיִזְבָּחוּ הַיְכַלּוּ בַיּוֹם הַיְחַיּוּ אֶת הָאֲבָנִים מֵעֲרֵמוֹת הֶעָפָר וְהֵמָּה שְׂרוּפוֹת
KJ (4:2): And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?
BN: And he spoke before his kinsmen, and the army of Shomron, and said: "What are these pathetic Jews doing? Will they restore at will? Will they make sacrifice? Will they make an end this day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, seeing they are burned?"
SHOMRON: Which we would call
Samaria. See my notes on the broader political situation at Nehemiah 2:10.
3:35 VE TOVI-YAH HA AMONI
ETSLO VA YOMER GAM ASHER HEM BONIM IM YA'ALEH SHU'AL U PHARATS CHOMAT AVNEYHEM
וְטוֹבִיָּה הָעַמֹּנִי אֶצְלוֹ וַיֹּאמֶר גַּם אֲשֶׁר הֵם בּוֹנִים אִם יַעֲלֶה שׁוּעָל וּפָרַץ חוֹמַת אַבְנֵיהֶם
BN: Now Tovi-Yah the Amoni was
with him, and he said: "Whatever they are building, if a fox goes up to it, he
will break down their stone wall."
TOVI-YAH HA AMONI: Again see Nehemiah 2:10.
ETSLO: By today's usage, he
was "at his house"; "chez lui" in French.
pey break
3:36 SHEM'A ELOHEYNU KI HAYINU
VUZAH VE HASHEV CHERPATAM EL RO'SHAM U TENEM LEVIZAH BE ERETS SHIVYAH
שְׁמַע אֱלֹהֵינוּ כִּי הָיִינוּ בוּזָה וְהָשֵׁב חֶרְפָּתָם אֶל רֹאשָׁם וּתְנֵם לְבִזָּה בְּאֶרֶץ שִׁבְיָה
KJ (4:4): Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity:
BN: "Hear, O our gods, for we are despised. Turn back their reproach upon their own head, and give them up to spoiling in a land of captivity...
This is not part of any known
liturgy, but appears to be a spontaneous prayer by Nechem-Yah. Spontaneous
prayer, as opposed to formal liturgy, will become a central point of debate
when Talmudic Judaism is founded after 70 CE. Spontaneous prayer will lose.
3:37 VE AL TECHAS AL AVONAM
VE CHATA'TAM MI LEPHANEYCHA AL TIMACHEH KI HICH'IYSU LE NEGED HA BONIM
וְאַל תְּכַס עַל עֲוֹנָם וְחַטָּאתָם מִלְּפָנֶיךָ אַל תִּמָּחֶה כִּי הִכְעִיסוּ לְנֶגֶד הַבּוֹנִים
KJ (4:5): And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee: for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders.
BN: And do not hide their iniquity, nor let their sin be blotted out from before you; for they have vexed you before the builders."
BN: And do not hide their iniquity, nor let their sin be blotted out from before you; for they have vexed you before the builders."
3:38 VA NIVNEH ET HA CHOMAH
VA TIKASHER KOL HA CHOMAH AD CHETSYAH VA YEHI LEV LA AM LA'ASOT
וַנִּבְנֶה אֶת הַחוֹמָה וַתִּקָּשֵׁר כָּל הַחוֹמָה עַד חֶצְיָהּ וַיְהִי לֵב לָעָם לַעֲשׂוֹת
KJ (4:6): So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.
BN: So we built the wall; and the entire wall was joined at half its height; for the people were minded to get this work done.
BN: So we built the wall; and the entire wall was joined at half its height; for the people were minded to get this work done.
The final six verses are both Sanvalat's response to the building of the wall, and Nechem-Yah's response to that response, which will lead to the actions taken in the next scene; so a change of chapter here, rather than at verse 32, is entirely logical. The final verse is the completion of the account of the building of the wall; the opening phrase of the next verse, at the start of the next chapter, clearly makes that separation; but so did the opening phrase at verse 33.
pey break
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