Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Nehemiah obtains permission from King Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem, travels there with royal letters and a military escort, surveys the ruined walls by night, and exhorts the Jews to rebuild despite opposition from Sanballat, Tobias, and Geshem.
Vulgate Text: 2 Esdrae (Nehemiah) 2:1-20
1. And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes: and wine was before him, and I took up the wine and gave it to the king; and I was as one languishing before his face. 2. And the king said to me: Why is your countenance sad, since I do not see you to be sick? This is not without reason, but some trouble, I know not what, is in your heart. And I feared very greatly; 3. and I said to the king: O king, live forever; why should my countenance not be sorrowful, since the city of the sepulchers of my father lies desolate, and its gates are burned with fire? 4. And the king said to me: For what do you make request? And I prayed to the God of heaven, 5. and I said to the king: If it seems good to the king, and if your servant is pleasing in your sight, that you would send me to Judea, to the city of the sepulcher of my father, and I will rebuild it. 6. And the king said to me, and the queen who sat beside him: How long will your journey be, and when will you return? And it pleased the king, and he sent me: and I appointed him a time. 7. And I said to the king: If it seems good to the king, let him give me letters to the governors of the region beyond the River, that they may conduct me until I come to Judea: 8. and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to cover the gates of the tower of the house, and the walls of the city, and the house which I shall enter. And the king gave to me according to the good hand of my God upon me. 9. And I came to the governors of the region beyond the river, and gave them the letters of the king. Now the king had sent with me captains of soldiers and horsemen. 10. And Sanballat the Horonite and Tobias the Ammonite servant heard of it: and they were grieved with a great affliction that a man had come who sought the prosperity of the children of Israel. 11. And I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days, 12. and I rose up in the night, I and a few men with me, and I did not tell anyone what God had put in my heart to do in Jerusalem, and there was no beast with me except the animal on which I sat. 13. And I went out by the gate of the valley at night, and before the dragon fountain, and to the dung gate, and I considered the wall of Jerusalem which was broken down, and its gates consumed by fire. 14. And I passed over to the gate of the fountain, and to the king's aqueduct, and there was no room for the beast on which I sat to pass. 15. And I went up by the torrent at night, and considered the wall, and turning back I came to the gate of the valley, and returned. 16. But the magistrates did not know where I had gone, or what I was doing: nor had I as yet told the Jews, or the priests, or the nobles, or the magistrates, or the rest who did the work, anything at all. 17. And I said to them: You know the affliction in which we are, because Jerusalem lies desolate, and its gates are consumed with fire; come, and let us build the walls of Jerusalem, and let us no longer be a reproach. 18. And I told them of the hand of my God that it was good upon me, and the words of the king which he had spoken to me, and I said: Let us rise up and build. And their hands were strengthened for the good work. 19. But Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobias the Ammonite servant, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, and they mocked us, and despised us, and said: What is this thing that you do? Are you rebelling against the king? 20. And I answered them and said: The God of heaven Himself helps us, and we are His servants; let us rise up and build: but you have no part, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem.
Verse 1: In the Month of Nisan
1. AND IT CAME TO PASS IN THE MONTH OF NISAN, IN THE TWENTIETH YEAR OF ARTAXERXES — Longimanus; for he (not Xerxes his father, to whom therefore Josephus wrongly ascribes this) reigned for 32 years and more, as is said in chapter XIII, 6. So Julius Africanus, St. Jerome, Augustine, Eusebius, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Bede, Rupert, and others whom Pererius cites in book XI on Daniel, who therefore everywhere begin the 70 weeks of Daniel, chapter IX, 25, from this twentieth year of Artaxerxes, in which he gave Nehemiah the permission to rebuild Jerusalem. See the commentary there. For I treated this passage at length in that place. Therefore I will not repeat it here.
AND I TOOK UP THE WINE (from the table) AND GAVE IT TO THE KING — into his hands, that he might drink, as his cupbearer. One may ask how Nehemiah was so elevated as to be a familiar of Artaxerxes the monarch, indeed his cupbearer, which office in the court is of the first rank, and is entrusted only to the great and most faithful. I respond: The first cause was the wisdom, virtue, and grace of Nehemiah, as I said, by which he insinuated himself into the hearts of princes, so as to win them over to himself and to his Jewish nation.
The second cause was that many consider Esther to have been the wife of this Artaxerxes, who bound him to herself, to Nehemiah, and to the Jews. But this must be examined in the book of Esther.
The third and more particular cause was that the kings of Persia drank Syrian wine, or wine imported from Syria, as Suidas, book XV, and Athenaeus attest; and Judea is a part or appendage of Syria. Therefore Artaxerxes wanted Nehemiah the Jew to be his cupbearer, so that he, as one supremely skilled in the wines of his homeland, would arrange for better wines to be brought to him from Judea or Syria, and would carefully preserve and manage them with the art and method by which they were customarily preserved and managed in Syria, lest they acquire sourness or any other defect.
Hear Athenaeus, book I, chapter XXIX: 'The kings of Persia,' he says, 'drank only Chalybonian wine. Posidonius relates that it was produced in Damascus of Syria, and that the Persians had planted vines there.' Moreover, concerning their water, which they drank, the same Athenaeus writes thus, book II, chapter VI: 'Herodotus, he says in book I, writes that water was brought for the king of Persia from the Choaspes River which flows past Susa, from which alone and from no other he drank.'
This was a remarkable superstition of the kings, that they considered it unworthy of royal dignity to drink any other water. Hear Aelian, book XII: While other supplies full of magnificence and display followed Xerxes, water from the Choaspes was likewise transported. But when in a desert place they were thirsty, and no remedy for thirst could be found, it was proclaimed in the army that if anyone had water from the Choaspes, he should give it to the king to drink, and someone was found who had a little, and that putrid. So Xerxes drank it, and regarded the one who had given it as a benefactor; because, had it not been found, he would have perished.
AND I WAS AS ONE LANGUISHING BEFORE HIS FACE. — The Hebrew has: and before I had not been 'bad' (that is, sad) before him. So Vatablus and Pagninus. But our translator, instead of reading 'lo' with aleph, meaning 'not,' read 'lo' with zayin, meaning 'to him'; whence he translated: And I was as it were 'bad,' that is, sad, thin, exhausted, languishing before him; for grief, sleeplessness, and fasts had made his face pale, thin, and languid. Moreover, the Septuagint, instead of 'ra,' meaning 'bad,' reading with different vowel points 'rea,' meaning 'companion,' translate: And there was no other (that is, companion) before him, as if to say: I was alone with the king.
Verse 2: Why Is Your Countenance Sad
2. AND THE KING SAID TO ME: WHY IS YOUR COUNTENANCE SAD, SINCE I DO NOT SEE YOU TO BE SICK? THIS IS NOT WITHOUT REASON, BUT SOME TROUBLE, I KNOW NOT WHAT, IS IN YOUR HEART. — The king suspected from Nehemiah's dejected face that he had something that greatly afflicted him, or certainly that he was plotting some deed, and perhaps devising some trap against him. Hence he inquires from him the cause of his sadness, and speaks ambiguously, so that Nehemiah might sincerely reveal the cause, and he says: 'Some trouble, I know not what, is in your heart'; 'trouble,' that is, affliction, pain, sorrow — as if to say: Your countenance is sad; therefore some sorrow is in your heart, for it shows and reveals itself in a sorrowful face; or 'trouble,' that is, malice, a malicious plot, as if perhaps you are contemplating some evil against me; whence the Septuagint translates: This is nothing but poneria, that is, wickedness of heart. For in Hebrew, ra, meaning 'bad,' signifies both wickedness and malice, as well as sadness and affliction, as in Matthew VI: 'Sufficient for the day is the evil,' that is, the affliction, 'thereof'; just as conversely 'good' signifies both the goodness and honesty of virtue, and also pleasantness and happiness, according to that saying: 'Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity,' Psalm CXXXIII, 2.
The king seems to have feared that Nehemiah might administer poison to him in the wine. For kings, who are fearful for themselves and their throne and have many rivals, fear all things even when safe, and especially poisons in food and drink; for, as Seneca says in the Thyestes: 'Poison is drunk from gold'; especially if Nehemiah, out of sorrow, refused to drink the very wine offered by the king, which is not incredible.
Verse 3: O King, Live Forever
3. O King, live forever — that is to say: I wish that you may live for the longest time, and forever, if it be possible. He says this to remove fear from the king, and that he might know that he was plotting nothing against his life.
BECAUSE THE CITY OF THE SEPULCHERS OF MY FATHER IS DESOLATE — that is to say: I am sorrowful, because Jerusalem, in which my fathers are buried and where their sepulchers stand, is desolate. He calls sepulchers 'houses,' because 'house' among the Hebrews signifies any place, cave, case, or niche that encloses and contains some body: thus nests are called houses of birds, and the river and sea are called the houses of fish.
Moreover, among the ancients there was great care and reverence for the sepulcher of their fathers and ancestors, lest their bones be exhumed and cast aside, or profaned and mixed with profane or unclean things. Hence Baruch, chapter II, 24, mourns and deplores the very same thing done by the Chaldeans, saying: 'You have established Your words which You spoke by the hands of Your servants the Prophets, that the bones of our kings and the bones of our fathers should be carried from their place, and behold they are cast out in the heat of the sun and in the frost of the night.' For God had threatened them with this through Jeremiah, chapter VIII, 1: 'They shall cast out,' he says, 'the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of those who dwelt in Jerusalem, from their sepulchers.' For among all nations the violation of sepulchers was regarded as a very grave injury and disgrace. Whence Horace in the Epodes, Ode 16, fearing this, laments thus: Alas, the barbarian conqueror shall tread upon the ashes, and the horseman Shall strike the city with resounding hoof. And the bones of Quirinus, which lack both winds and sun, (A horror to behold) the insolent one shall scatter.
Therefore Artaxerxes received this just and serious complaint of Nehemiah with favorable ears, mindful of what the Scythians had replied to his ancestor Darius. Valerius Maximus narrates the event, book V, chapter IV: 'When Darius,' he says, 'was repeatedly making an assault into their territories with all the forces of his kingdom, gradually yielding, they had retreated to the most remote deserts of Asia. Then asked by him through ambassadors what end they would make to their flight, or what beginning of fighting, they responded that they had neither any cities nor cultivated fields for which to fight. But when he came to the monuments of their ancestors, he would learn how the Scythians were accustomed to fight.'
So even now the Arabs, though fierce and barbarous, guard the sepulchers of their leaders and fathers, and fight for them as if for their altars and hearths, as the neighboring Maronites told me in Rome.
Verse 4: I Prayed to God
4. I PRAYED TO GOD — with a brief ejaculatory prayer, but a fervent one, that just as He had begun to make the king well-disposed to me and my people, He would also continue, so that he would assent to my petition which I was about to propose to him concerning the rebuilding of Jerusalem.
Verse 6: The King and the Queen
6. AND THE KING AND THE QUEEN SAID TO ME (namely Esther, say Torniellius, Gordon, Serarius, Salianus, Sanchez, and Bellarmine, volume I, book I, chapter VII, about which more in the introduction to Esther): HOW LONG WILL YOUR JOURNEY BE? That is to say: How much time will you spend in going and returning? For we desire that you return as quickly as possible, so that you may continue to serve us in your office of cupbearer, which you perform so excellently; for we do not wish to be long deprived of your presence, which is so pleasing to us. What Nehemiah replied to this he does not narrate; but it is certain that he replied and assigned some period of time, and a brief one, although perhaps afterward he was detained in Jerusalem longer than he had said or expected; for he presided over it as governor for twelve years, namely from the 20th year of Artaxerxes to the 32nd, as is evident from chapter VI, 1, and chapter XIII, 6. Hence some think he was absent from the king for this entire period of twelve years, but the desire of the king and queen does not seem to have tolerated so long an absence; therefore it is likely that Nehemiah, shortly after the 52 days in which he completed the construction of the walls, returned to the king, as will be evident from chapter VI, verse 14.
Verse 7: Beyond the River
7. BEYOND THE RIVER (the Euphrates), THAT THEY MAY CONDUCT ME UNTIL I COME TO JUDEA. — For on this side of the Euphrates nearly all the nations up to Judea were rivals and enemies of the Jews, such that they did not want Jerusalem, a city once so powerful, famous, and formidable to them, to be restored. For God had given the Jews all the regions from Jerusalem to the Euphrates, and had given them the Euphrates as their boundary. Whence David also extended his victorious arms to the Euphrates. Hence also Josephus, book XI, chapter v, says that these nations in the time of Nehemiah were ravaging the fields of the Jews by day and night, throwing everything into confusion with slaughter, plunder, and destruction. Therefore, knowing this, Nehemiah rightly asked the king to arrange for him to be conducted safely to Jerusalem; and the king granted him this and more; for he added to his protection a military escort.
Verse 8: A Letter to Asaph
8. AND A LETTER TO ASAPH THE KEEPER OF THE KING'S FOREST — which was on Mount Lebanon, so that timber might be given me from there, and sent by sea to Joppa for the construction of the city of Jerusalem. So Sanchez and Villalpando, volume III, book III.
THAT I MAY COVER THE GATES OF THE TOWER OF THE HOUSE — of God, namely the temple, as the Complutensian editions have it. For although the temple had already been built, the annexes of the temple had not yet been constructed. So Vatablus. Whence the Hebrew has: That I may cover the gates of the royal palace, which was attached to the house, namely of God, that is, to the temple.
Verse 11: I Was There Three Days
11. AND I WAS THERE THREE DAYS — hidden and concealed, so that by night I might survey the ruins of the city, and see what needed to be repaired immediately, lest Sanballat and his associates learn of my plans and hinder them.
Verse 12: No Beast With Me
12. AND THERE WAS NO BEAST WITH ME EXCEPT THE ANIMAL ON WHICH I SAT — that is to say: I alone, on account of old age and fatigue, rode on a horse or donkey; but my companions went on foot, lest from the number and noise of horses and horsemen our enemies be aroused to attack us.
Verse 13: The Gate of the Valley
13. I WENT OUT BY THE GATE OF THE VALLEY. (This gate was not the eastern one, which led into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, but the other, the western one, which looked upon the valleys of corpses and Calvary. So the Septuagint.) And before the dragon fountain (from which, namely, waters leaped and were discharged through the mouth of a bronze or stone dragon): and the dung gate — through which refuse was carried out. So Burchardus, Villalpando, Adrichomius, Salianus.
AND I CONSIDERED THE WALL OF JERUSALEM WHICH WAS BROKEN DOWN. — The Hebrew has, hem parutsim, that is, 'they,' namely the walls, 'broken down,' where in hem the final mem, which is usually closed, is open, to indicate that the wall of the city was gaping and open, because it had been demolished and broken down.
Verse 14: The Gate of the Fountain
14. AND I PASSED OVER TO THE GATE OF THE FOUNTAIN (of Siloam) AND TO THE KING'S AQUEDUCT — that is, of Hezekiah; for Hezekiah diverted the waters of the fountain of Siloam through an aqueduct, cutting through the rock, into the cisterns of the city of Jerusalem, so that the citizens besieged by Sennacherib would have water to drink, and the Assyrians besieging them, suffering from a lack of water, would be consumed by thirst. This is evident from II Chronicles, chapter XXXII, verse 30: 'This same Hezekiah stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and directed them beneath on the west side of the city of David.' And more clearly, Sirach chapter XLVIII, verse 19: 'Hezekiah fortified his city, and brought water into the midst of it, and dug through rock with iron, and built a well for the water.' See the commentary there.
AND THERE WAS NO ROOM FOR THE BEAST TO PASS — because on one side were steep cliffs, on the other the rubble of demolished walls, and waters flooding everything; therefore I was forced to turn back.
Verse 15: I Went Up by the Torrent
15. And I went up by the torrent (Kidron) at night, AND I CONSIDERED THE WALL — to see what needed to be restored in it first, and to which part I should immediately put my hand: AND TURNING BACK I CAME TO THE GATE OF THE VALLEY of corpses and Calvary, of which verse 12 speaks.
Verse 16: The Rest Who Did the Work
16. AND THE REST WHO DID THE WORK — that is, the workmen and overseers of the works, who had been assigned to the construction of the walls, but because of the attacks and harassments of the enemies had interrupted the work, or were carrying it out slowly and negligently.
Verse 18: The Hand of My God
18. AND I TOLD THEM OF THE HAND OF MY GOD, THAT IT WAS GOOD UPON ME. — The hand is a symbol of help and aid, likewise of direction and protection; for Nehemiah had experienced this from God, both in that He had made King Artaxerxes so well-disposed and generous toward him, and in that He had made his journey through so many enemies and difficulties, having overcome them, prosperous. Therefore Nehemiah, indicating to the Jews the goodwill of both God and the king toward himself and them, encouraged them to generously and fervently resume the construction of the city walls, which had been abandoned or negligently attended to because of the Samaritans' attacks.
Verse 19: Sanballat the Horonite
19. AND SANBALLAT THE HORONITE HEARD — This is a different person from the Sanballat who was the father-in-law of Manasseh, the first High Priest of the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim. For that Horonite preceded this father-in-law of Manasseh by 109 years, says Salianus, about which more below.
And Tobias the Ammonite servant — who from a slave and bondsman had been elevated, and had been appointed governor of the Ammonite region by the king of Persia, just as Sanballat of Samaria, and Geshem of Arabia. These three governors of neighboring regions were therefore hostile to Nehemiah and the Jews, and adversaries in the construction.
Verse 20: No Part, Nor Right, Nor Memorial
20. BUT YOU HAVE NO PART, NOR RIGHT, NOR MEMORIAL IN JERUSALEM. — 'Right,' that is, legal claim. As if to say: You are, as it were, Samaritans (once brought by the Assyrians to inhabit Samaria, IV Kings XVII), Ammonites, and Arabs, who received from the Persians the right to administer Samaria, Ammon, and Arabia, but not Judea and Jerusalem, nor have you heretofore dwelt in Jerusalem; for there is no memorial of you in it. Therefore, attend to your own affairs among those committed to your charge, and do not meddle in ours; for I have received from the king of Persia full authority to rebuild Jerusalem: therefore beware lest you oppose me; for otherwise you will be opposing the king of Persia, and will find him your avenger. So Cajetan, Sanchez, and others.