Nehemiah 3:24

Neh 3:24 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.

Ver. 24. Unto the turning of the wall] Namely, from the south side to the east; which turning came with the corner inwards into the city, according to the natural situation of the rock and the valley.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Next repaired Binnui the son of Henadad, a second portion from the house of Azariah, to the angle and to the corner; and further on (Neh 3:25) Palal the son of Uzzai, from opposite the angle and the high tower which stands out from the king's house by the court of the prison. We join העליון to המּגדּל, though it is also verbally admissible to combine it with המּלך בּית, "the tower which stands out from the king's upper house," because nothing is known of an upper and lower king's house. It would be more natural to assume (with Bertheau) that there was an upper and a lower tower at the court of the prison, but this is not implied by העליון. The word means first, high, elevated, and its use does not assume the existence of a lower tower; while the circumstance that the same tower is in Neh 3:27 called the great (הגּדול) tells in favour of the meaning high in the present case. The court of the prison was, according to Jer 32:2, in or near the king's house; it is also mentioned Jer 32:8, Jer 32:12; Jer 33:1; Jer 37:21; Jer 38:6, Jer 38:13, Jer 38:28, and Jer 39:14. But from none of these passages can it be inferred, as by Bertheau, that it was situate in the neighbourhood of the temple. His further remark, too, that the king's house is not the royal palace in the city of David, but an official edifice standing upon or near the temple area, and including the court of the prison with its towers, is entirely without foundation.

(Note: Equally devoid of proof is the view of Ewald, Diestel (in Herzog's Realencycl. xiii. p. 325), Arnold, and others, that the royal palace stood upon Moriah or Ophel on the south side of the temple, in support of which Diestel adduces Neh 3:25. See the refutation of this view in the commentary on Kg1 7:12 (Note).)

The royal palace lay, according to Josephus, Ant. viii. 5. 2, opposite the temple (ἀντικρὺς ἔχων ναόν), i.e., on the north-eastern side of Zion, and this is quite in accordance with the statements of this verse; for as it is not till Neh 3:27 that the description of the wall-building reaches the walls of Ophel, all the localities and buildings spoken of in Neh 3:24-27 must be sought for on the east side of Zion. The court of the prison formed, according to Eastern custom, part of the royal fortress upon Zion. The citadel had, moreover, a high tower. This is obvious from Sol 4:4, though the tower of David there mentioned, on which hung a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men, may not be identical with the tower of the king's house in this passage; from Mic 4:8, where the tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, is the tower of the royal citadel; and from Isa 32:14, where citadel and tower (בּחן, properly watch-tower) answer to the ארמון of the royal citadel, which lay with its forts upon the hill of Zion. This high tower of the king's house, i.e., of the royal citadel, stood, according to our verses, in the immediate neighbourhood of the angle and the corner (הפּנּה); for the section of wall which reached to the פּנּה lay opposite the angle and the high tower of the king's house. The wall here evidently formed a corner, running no longer from south to north, but turning eastwards, and passing over Ophel, the southern spur of Moriah. A length from this corner onwards was built by Pedaiah the son of Parosh; comp. Ezr 2:3.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

3:24 The angle and the corner refers to an unidentified turn in the wall.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(24) Unto the corner.—The north-eastern angle of the “city of David.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

24. Binnui the son of Henadad another piece] R.V. portion. In all probability the same as ‘Bavvai the son of Henadad’ mentioned in Neh_3:18. ‘Binnui’ is mentioned in Neh_10:9 as one of the Levites.

We have either to suppose that ‘Bavvai’ in Neh_3:18 is a corruption for Binnui, or as some have held, that Binnui is the name of the Levitical house of which Bavvai was the chief representative. Of these alternatives the former is preferable. For (1) the reading in Neh_3:18 is doubtful; (2) the names in these verses are clearly those of priests and Levites; (3) ‘Binnui’ is mentioned in Neh_10:9 as a leading Levite. He may very well have assisted in one portion of the restoration as a leading citizen of Keilah, in another as a chief Levite.

even unto the corner] R.V. and unto the corner.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Moreover, the Nethinims dwelt in Ophel,.... An high tower upon the wait, in this part of it, see Ch2 27:3, these were servants to the Levites, and repaired here, where their dwellings were:

unto the place over against the water gate toward the east: and as one part of their work was to fetch water for the temple, they were here very properly situated; it led to the king's garden, the valley of Jehoshaphat, and from thence a plain way to Bethany:

and the tower that lieth out; from the wall.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

24. The turning… the corner — These points seem to have belonged either to the wall of the temple enclosure, or to that which separated the upper from the lower city; but all attempts to locate them precisely must be purely conjectural.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

After him repaired Binnui the men of Henadad another piece. The name, Binnui, has not occurred previously, but probably ought to be substituted for Bavai (ywnb for ywb) in ver. 18. He was a Levite, (Neh_10:9) of the important Levitical family of Henadad, mentioned in Ezr_3:9. Unto the turning of the wall, even unto the corner. As far as the northeast angle of the special wall of the city of David, which here adjoined the main wall of Jerusalem. A tower here stood out (ver. 25), and the wall turned at a right angle, both northward and southward.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.