Nehemiah 7:70

70 "Some from among the heads of fathers' clans made contributions for the work. The Tirshata contributed to the treasury a thousand gold darkmonim [twentyone pounds], fifty basins and 530 tunics for the cohanim.

Nehemiah 7:70 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 7:70

And some of the chief of the fathers gave unto the work
Of building the city and the temple, and for that service, ( Ezra 2:68 ) ,

the Tirshatha gave to the treasure a thousand drachms of gold;
each of which was one pound sterling, and so amounted to so many pounds: of these "dracmons", or "darics", a Persian coin, mention is made in ( Ezra 2:69 ) , they were golden staters, or shekels and had their name as is said, not from Darius, the father of Xerxes, though it is certain, from Herodotus ^F4, that he coined golden money; but from some other king of the same name, more ancient ^F5, which must be Darius the Mede; and if they are the same with the Adarcon in ( Ezra 8:27 ) as they seem to be, then those in ( 1 Chronicles 29:7 ) were pieces of money not so called in the times of David, but of Ezra, the writer of that book: whether this Tirshatha was Zerubbabel, or Nehemiah, is not easy to say, since this donation is not the same with that in Ezra, not made at the same time nor are the gifts the same, nor the persons that gave them. Zerubbabel was Tirshatha when the Jews came out of Babylon, and Nehemiah now:

fifty basins;
which were vessels, in the which the blood of the sacrifices was received and out of which it was sprinkled:

five hundred and thirty priests' garments;
which were laid up in the wardrobe, and used on occasion.

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 Melpomene, sive, l. 4. c. 166.
F5 Scholiast. in Aristoph. Eccles. p. 741, 742. So Harpocration. Lexic. in voce (dardikov) , and Suidas on the same word.

Nehemiah 7:70 In-Context

68 Their horses numbered 736; their mules, 245;

69 their camels, 435; and their donkeys, 6,720.

70 "Some from among the heads of fathers' clans made contributions for the work. The Tirshata contributed to the treasury a thousand gold darkmonim [twentyone pounds], fifty basins and 530 tunics for the cohanim.

71 Some of the heads of fathers' clans gave into the treasury for the work 20,000 gold darkmonim [420 pounds] and 2,200 silver manim [one-and-a-third tons].

72 The rest of the people gave 20,000 gold darkmonim, 2,000 silver manim [about one-and-a-quarter tons] and sixty-seven tunics for the cohanim.