Nehemiah 3:17-30

The constant mention of "priests," "Levites," and Nethinims," sufficiently indicates that the writer is here concerned with the sacerdotal quarter, that immediately about the temple.

Nehemiah 3:18

Bavai - Or, "Binnui" Nehemiah 3:24; Nehemiah 10:9.

The armoury at the turning of the wall - literally, "the armoury of the corner." The northwestern corner of the special wall of the "city of David" seems to be intended. See Nehemiah 3:1 note.

Nehemiah 3:20

The other piece - Rather, "another piece." The notice of Baruch' s first piece, like that of Malchijah' s and Hashub' s Nehemiah 3:11, seems to have slipped out of the text.

Nehemiah 3:22

The word here translated "plain" is applied in the rest of Scripture almost exclusively to the Ghor or Jordan valley. Compare, however, Nehemiah 12:28.

Nehemiah 3:24

The turning of the wall - The northeastern angle of the "city of David" seems here to be reached. At this point a tower "lay out" Nehemiah 3:25, or projected extraordinarily, from the wall, being probably a watch-tower commanding the Kidron valley and all the approaches to the city from the southeast, the east, and the northeast.

Nehemiah 3:25

The "king' s high house" is almost certainly the old palace of David, which was on the temple hill, and probably occupied a position directly north of the temple.

That was by the court of the prison - Prisons were in old times adjuncts of palaces. The palace of David must have had its prison; and the "prison gate" Nehemiah 12:39 was clearly in this quarter.

Nehemiah 3:26

The marginal reading is better. On the Nethinims see I Chronicles 9:2 note.

Ophel was the slope south of the temple (see the marginal reference "y" note); and the water-gate, a gate in the eastern wall, either for the escape of the superfluous water from the temple reservoirs, or for the introduction of water from the Kidron valley when the reservoirs were low.

Nehemiah 3:27

The foundations of an outlying tower near the southeast angle of the temple area in this position have been recently discovered.

Nehemiah 3:28

"The horse gate" was on the east side of the city, overlooking the Kidron valley. It seems to have been a gate by which horses approached and left the old palace, that of David, which lay north of the temple Nehemiah 3:25.