Neemia 13:6

6 Ma quando si faceva tutto questo, io non ero a Gerusalemme; perché l’anno trentaduesimo di Artaserse, re di Babilonia, ero tornato presso il re; e in capo a qualche tempo avendo ottenuto un congedo dal re,

Neemia 13:6 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 13:6

But in all this time was not I at Jerusalem
Nehemiah, who was absent all the while these things were done by Eliashib, or otherwise they would not have been suffered:

for in the thirty second year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, came I
unto the king from Jerusalem;
after he had governed there twelve years, to whom he came to give an account of affairs there; this was not Xerxes, as some ^F2 have thought, for he reigned but twenty one years; but Darius Hystaspis, who reigned thirty six years, according to Ptolemy's canon, and with which Herodotus ^F3 agrees; he is called king of Babylon, because that, with the whole empire, was in the hands of the king of Persia, as it had been from the times of Cyrus:

and after certain days obtained I leave of the king;
to return to Jerusalem again; not after five years, as Dr. Prideaux ^F4 thinks; for it is not likely that Nehemiah would stay so long ere he asked leave of the king to return to Jerusalem, which was so much his care, and on whose prosperity his heart was so much set; rather at most it was but a full year he stayed ere he got leave to return, as Vatablus and Piscator interpret it; in which sense the phrase of certain days is used in ( Leviticus 25:29 ) , and in other places quoted by the last mentioned interpreter.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 Apud Ganz. Tzemach David, par. 2. fol. 8. 2.
F3 Polymnia, sive, l. 7. c. 1.
F4 Connect. par. 1. p. 397.

Neemia 13:6 In-Context

4 Or prima di questo, il sacerdote Eliascib, ch’era preposto alle camere della casa del nostro Dio ed era parente di Tobia,

5 avea messo a disposizione di quest’ultimo una camera grande là dove, prima d’allora, si riponevano le offerte, l’incenso, gli utensili, la decima del grano, del vino e dell’olio, tutto ciò che spettava per legge ai Leviti, ai cantori, ai portinai, e la parte che se ne prelevava per i sacerdoti.

6 Ma quando si faceva tutto questo, io non ero a Gerusalemme; perché l’anno trentaduesimo di Artaserse, re di Babilonia, ero tornato presso il re; e in capo a qualche tempo avendo ottenuto un congedo dal re,

7 tornai a Gerusalemme, e m’accorsi del male che Eliascib avea fatto per amor di Tobia, mettendo a sua disposizione una camera nei cortili della casa di Dio.

8 La cosa mi dispiacque fortemente, e feci gettare fuori dalla camera tutte le masserizie appartenenti a Tobia;