Nehemiah 3:16 - Exposition

Nehemiah the son of Azbuk . Not the writer, who was "the son of Hachaliah" ( Nehemiah 1:1 ), but another person of the same name. It was the frequent bearing of the same name by two or more contemporaries which made it necessary to designate men generally by their own names and the names of their fathers. Bethzur ("House of the Rock") is now Beit-Sur, and lies on the ordinary route from Jerusalem to Hebron, about fifteen miles south of Jerusalem. It is mentioned in Joshua 15:58 among the cities of Judah, and appears to have become a place of considerable importance under the Maccabees (1 Maccabees 4:29; 6:31-50; 14:7; etc.). The sepulchres of David and the kings, his descendants, to the time of Hezekiah, were excavated in the rock upon which the temple stood ( Ezekiel 43:7-9 ), apparently on its western side. They have not hitherto been discovered. Here too was the pool that was made by Hezekiah when he was about to be besieged by Sennacherib ( 2 Chronicles 32:30 ; Isaiah 22:9-11 ). The house of the mighty —the Gibborim, or "mighty men of David ( 2 Samuel 23:8 ; 1 Chronicles 11:10 )—is not elsewhere mentioned. It was no doubt the barrack where, according to tradition, David had quartered his best troops.