So the wall was finished in the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 15. Elul, the last of the civil year, corresponding with our August and September, when the walls were dedicated. Calmet. 12:27.—Days. Josephus (xi. 5.) says, “two years and three (Greek four) months” ( Bible.) had been spent in perfecting the work. Cajet.—Others date from the reception of the letter, verse 5. Vatab.—But the work only lasted the time here specified, as the materials were at hand, and some of the walls were standing, while the rocks defended other parts; and the city was not then so large as it was afterwards. Calmet.—The whole people wrought almost day and night, and Nehemias encouraged them with all his power. Tirinus.—Thus Alexander the Great built the walls of New Alexandria, on the Tanais, 60 stadia, or near 6000 paces ( Calmet.) long, in less than twenty days; ( Tirinus.) and Cæsar perfected other works, before Alise, and so forth with equal expedition. Bel. Galatians 1. and vii.—The Romans, at the last siege of Jerusalem, surrounded the city with a wall 5000 paces long, and with thirteen towers, in three days. Jos. Bel. vi. 13. Calmet.