VII.

(1-4) Measures were taken for the security of the city, now made a complete fortress. The comparative thinness of the population taxed the governor's resources, and the result appears at a later stage.

(1) Were appointed.--Placed in charge, probably over all the walls. This was an extraordinary provision, to be explained by the fact that these organised bodies formed a large proportion of the inhabitants. The Levites had usually guarded only the Temple.

(2) Hanani.--Who probably had returned from Susa with his brother.

Hananiah the ruler of the palace.--Commander of the fortress, as in Nehemiah 2:8. He was in the immediate service of the Persian king, but his chief recommendation was his piety, which distinguished him from too many of the other rulers.

(3) Until the sun be hot.--General directions were given that the gates should not be thrown open so early as sunrise; they were to be opened and barred again while the guard was present; and the inhabitants were to be divided for night-watches, part on the walls and part before their own houses.

(4) Large and great.--Literally, broad on both sides, with large unoccupied spaces.

The houses were not builded.--In sufficient numbers to provide the requisite population for the city of God. The emphasis is on the fact that the people were few.

Verse 1. - The porters and the singers and the Levites. The porters and the singers were themselves Levites, but are often distinguished from their brethren, who had no such special office (see Ezra 2:40-42, 70; Ezra 7:24; Ezra 10:23, 24; Nehemiah 7:43-45, 73; Nehemiah 10:28, etc.). Nehemiah's choice of Levites to guard the gates of Jerusalem may seem strange; but we must remember -

1. That the priests and Levites formed nearly one half the population of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 11:6-19 compared with 1 Chronicles 9:9-22).

2. That the office of guarding the temple gates had always been discharged by Levites (1 Chronicles 9:17-22; 1 Chronicles 26:12-19).

7:1-4 Nehemiah, having finished the wall, returned to the Persian court, and came to Jerusalem again with a new commission. The public safety depends on every one's care to guard himself and his family against sin.Now it came to pass, when the wall was built, and I had set up the doors,.... Which was not done when Sanballat sent his first letter, but now was, Nehemiah 6:1,

and the porters and the singers, and the Levites were appointed; not to attend the doors of the gates of the wall, but to return to their service in the temple, who had been employed in one thing or another, while the wall and gates were building and repairing; see Nehemiah 3:17.