Benaiab, one of David's worthlee, 2 Sam. xxiii. œ0.
from hence to the end of ver. 30 mention is made of
various cities and towns, in the tribe of Judah, inha-
bited by the men of it, which are to be met with in
Josh. xv. excepting Jeshua and Mckonah, ver. 26, 28.
of which we nowhere else read.
Ver. 31. The children also of Benjamin, frora Geba,
dwelt at Michmash, &c.3 Geba was a city on the
sonthem border of Benjamin, Josh. xviii. 24. and Mich-
mash on the-northern, of which see 1 Sam. xiii. 2. in
this and the four following verses are the names of se-
veral cities in the tribe of Benjamin, inhabited by the
men of that tribe, as Alia, the same with Ai, that
lay on the east of Beth-el, here also mentioned, see
Josh. vii. 2. Analboth, the birth-place of Jeremiah the

prophet, Jer. i. 1. Nob, a city of the priests, 1 Sam.
xxi. 1. and xxii. 19. Ananiah is nowhere else men-
tioned; Hazor is to be distinguished from another of
this name in the tribe of Naphtali, Josh. xix. 3&
Ramah, a place well known in Benjamin, Josh. xviii.
25. Gittaim, of which see 2 Sam. iv. 3. Hadid, the
same with Adida, which lay in a plain, 1 Maccab. xii.
38. Zeboim, a valley of this name, is read in 1 Sam.
xiii. 18. Neballat we read of nowhere else; of Lod
and Ono, see 1 Chron. viii. 12. and the valley of crafts-
men, or Chorasin, 1 Chron. iv. 14.
Ver. 36. And of the Levites were divisions in Judah,
and in Benjanmin.3 They were scattered about, some
here and some there, in both these tribes, for the
better instruction of tie people.

THIs chapter gives an account of tihe chief of the
priests and Levites in the days of Zerubbabel, Jeshua,
Joiakim, Eliashib, and Nehemiah, ver. 1--26. of the
dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, and of the joy
expressed on that occasion, ver. 27--43. and of the
appointment of some persons over the treasuries for
tihe priests, Levitee, singers, and porters, yet. 44---47.
Ver. 1. _Now these are the priests and the Levitee that
went up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and de-
sbus, &c.] Who went up from the captivity in Ba-
bylon to Jerusalem with them; the one was the prince,
the other the high-priest, the same with Joshua the
high-priest, Zech. iii. 1. the names of the priests are
given in this and the six following verses: Seraiah,
Jeremiah, Ezra; not Jeremiah the prophet, who cannot
be thought to live so long as through the captivity;
but Ezra may be Ezra the priest and scribe, who might
come up with Zerubbabel to Jerusalem, and return
to Babylon again, and firom thence come again as he
did, in the seventh year of A rtaxerxes, Ezra vii. 1.6,
7. though this by some "{m} is not thought very probable.
Ver. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Amariah, Malluch, Hatlush,
&c.] Whose names are among the sealers of the co-
venant, oh. x. 3, 4. Malluch is afterwards called Melicu,
ver. 14. Shechaniah, called Shebanish, vet. 14. and so
in oh. x. 4. Rehum, who, by transposition of letters,
is Harim, ver. 15. and so in ch. x. 5. Meremoth,
called Meraioth, ver. 15. Iddo, Ginnetho, read Ginne-
thon, ver. 16. so in ch. x. 6. Abijah; there was a
course of a priest of this name, of which Zechariah
the father of John the Baptist was, Luke i. 5. Miamin,
Miadiah, Bil.,4ah; the first two are called Miniamin
and Moadiah, ver. 17. Shemaiah, Joiarib, Jedaiah,
Sallu ; called Sallai, vet. 20. Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah :
these were the chief of the priests, and of their brethren,
ú in the days of Jeshua; heads of courses; or, however,
priests of the greatest note in the times of Jeshua the
high-priest.
Ver. 8. Moreover the Levitee, &c.] Who lived in
the same times: were Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Shere-
blab, Judah, and Mattaniah; most of these are made
mention of in ch. viii. 7. and x. 9, 10. and xi. 15, 17.
the last of them is said to be over the thanksgiving, he
and his brethren; he was the precentor, or had the
directing and conducting of the songs of the temple,
particularly the thanksgiving-song at the daily sacri-
fices; Jarchi takes the word here used to be the name
of a musical instrument.
Ver. 9. Also Bakbukiah and Unni, &c.] Two other
Levitee; tihe first is mentioned in ch. xi. 17. their bre-
thren, were over-against them in the watches; the
Levitee were divided into 24 wards, and these were
placed one against another, 1 Chron. xxiii. 6. and
xxvi. le.
Ver. 10, 11. And Jeshua begat Joialkim, Joiakim also
begot Eliashib, and Eliashib begot Joiada, and Joiada
begat Jonathan, and Jonathan begot Jaddua.] This is
an account of the high-priests in succession in the se-
cond temple, the first six of them; and if Jaddua, the
last mentioned, is the same with Jaddus, as Josephus
supposes, who went forth in this pontifical robes to
meet Alexander the great returning from his conquests
of Tyre and Gaze, from whotn he obtained many
yours, and whom he had into the temple, and shewed
him the prophecy of Daniel concerning himself; this
paragraph must be written by another hand, and not
Nehemiah, since it can hardly be thought he should
live so long; and as to his times, this account of him,
or the history of his own times, seems not to have
gone through the priesthood of Eliashib, the third of
those high-priests, see ch. xiii. 2.8. and to reach no
further than to the 32d of Darius Hystaspis, ch. xiii. 6.
this fragment therefore might be inserted by some
godly man under a divine direction in after-times, as
we have several insertions in the books of Moses and
Joshua of the like kind; and particularly in 1 Chron.
iii. 19, &c. where the genealogy of Zerubbabel is carried
down beyond the times of the Maccabees, and so could
not be placed there by Ezra.
Vet. lc2_--c2_1. And in the days of Joiakim were priests,
the chief of thefathers, &c.] Tlhis was the son and
successor of Jeshua, or Joshua, the first high-priest
of the second temple; the principal men of the priest-
hood in his time were as follow, and who were the


{m} Vid. Rainold de Lib. Apocryph. praelect. 153. p. 402, &c.
{n} Antiqu. l. 11. c. 8. sect. 5.