and indeed before (opposite) his house, i.e., the portion of wall which lay opposite his own dwelling; and by Hattush the son of Hashabniah. Whether Hattush is to be identified with the priest of this name (Neh 10:5), or with the similarly named descendant of David (Ezr 8:2), or with neither, cannot be determined.
Verse 11
A second section of wall was repaired by Malchijah the son of Harim, and Hashshub ben Pahath-Moab, two families who came up with Zerubbabel, Ezr 2:6 and Ezr 2:32. Bertheau understands שׁנית מדּה of a second section of wall added to a first already repaired by the same builders. So, too, he says, did Meremoth ben Urijah build one portion, Neh 3:4, and a second, Neh 3:21; comp. Neh 3:5 and Neh 3:27, Neh 3:15 and Neh 3:19, Neh 3:8 and Neh 3:30. This first portion, however, which this mention of a second presupposes, not being named, he infers that our present text has not preserved its original completeness, and thinks it probable, from Neh 12:38 and Neh 12:39, that certain statements, in this description, relating to the gate of Ephraim and its neighbourhood, which once stood before Neh 3:8, have been omitted. This inference is unfounded. The non-mention of the gate of Ephraim is to be ascribed, as we have already remarked on Neh 3:8, to other reasons than the incompleteness of the text; and the assertion that שׁנית מדּה assumes that a former portion was repaired by the same builders, receives no support from a comparison of Neh 3:5 with Neh 3:27, Neh 3:15 with Neh 3:19, and Neh 3:8 with Neh 3:30. Hananiah the son of Shelemiah, and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph, who, according to Neh 3:30, built שׁני מדּה, are not identical with Hananiah the son of the apothecaries, Neh 3:8. The same remark applies to Ezer the son of Jeshua, the ruler of Mizpah (Neh 3:19), and Shallum the ruler of the district of Mizpah (Neh 3:15). Only in Neh 3:5 and Neh 3:27, and Neh 3:4 and Neh 3:21, are the names of the builders the same. Moreover, besides Neh 3:21 and Neh 3:27, שׁנית מדּה occurs five times more (Neh 3:11, Neh 3:19, Neh 3:20, Neh 3:24, and Neh 3:30) with respect to builders not previously (nor subsequently) mentioned in this list. Hence, in five different places, the names of the building parties, and the notices of the portions of wall built by them respectively, must have been lost, - a circumstance
