Nehemia 13:6

6 Doch in dit alles was ik niet te Jeruzalem; want in het twee en dertigste jaar van Arthahsasta, koning van Babel, kwam ik tot den koning; maar ten einde van sommige dagen verkreeg ik weder verlof van den koning.

Nehemia 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.

Nehemia 13:6 In-Context

4 Eljasib nu, de priester, die gesteld was over de kamer van het huis onzes Gods, was voor dezen nabestaande van Tobia geworden.

5 En hij had hem een grote kamer gemaakt, alwaar zij te voren henenleiden het spijsoffer, den wierook en de vaten, en de tienden van koren, van most en van olie, die bevolen waren voor de Levieten, en de zangers, en de poortiers, mitsgaders het hefoffer der priesteren.

6 Doch in dit alles was ik niet te Jeruzalem; want in het twee en dertigste jaar van Arthahsasta, koning van Babel, kwam ik tot den koning; maar ten einde van sommige dagen verkreeg ik weder verlof van den koning.

7 En ik kwam te Jeruzalem, en verstond van het kwaad, dat Eljasib voor Tobia gedaan had, makende hem een kamer in de voorhoven van Gods huis.

8 En het mishaagde mij zeer; zo wierp ik al het huisraad van Tobia buiten, uit de kamer.