Nehemiah 3:1 - Exposition

Then Eliashib the high priest rose up . It is satisfactory to find Eliashib the high priest taking the part which befitted him on this occasion. Subsequently we find him "allied by marriage to Tobiah ( Nehemiah 13:4 ), and guilty of a profanation of the temple ( ibid. Nehemiah 3:5 ). By the line of high priests given in Nehemiah 12:10 , Nehemiah 12:11 , it appears that Eliashib was the son of Joiakim, and the grandson of the Jeshua who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel ( Ezra 2:2 ; Ezra 3:2 ). With his brethren . The priests generally. Compare Nehemiah 12:28 , which shows that the priests undertook a portion of the eastern wall, besides the work here mentioned. Builded the sheep gate . The "sheep gate" appears to have been a gate in the eastern wall, the προβατική of St. John ( John 5:2 ), which was close to the pool of Bethesda. By this gate were brought in the sheep needed for sacrifice, which were then washed in the adjoining pool, and conveyed from it into the temple area, whereon the pool abuts. The priests dwelt principally in this portion of the city. They sanctified it . This appears to have been a dedication quite distinct from that which is described in Nehemiah 12:27-43 . The priests, having completed the rebuilding of the sheep gate, and of the wall extending from it northwards as far as the tower of Hananeel, anticipated the general dedication by a special one, which "sanctified," or consecrated, their own portion of the wall Thus a sacred character was impressed on the work at the earliest possible moment, and it was placed under the protection of the Almighty. The tower of Meah (or rather Hammeah, i.e . "the Hundred") and the tower of Hananeel appear to have been situated almost at the same point of the wall. Perhaps they were opposite each other, like the towers in the walls of Babylon (Herod; 1:179).