31 And the children of Benjamin were living from Geba, at Michmash and Aija, and at Beth-el and its daughter-towns,
And moving on from there to the mountain on the east of Beth-el, he put up his tent, having Beth-el on the west and Ai on the east: and there he made an altar and gave worship to the name of the Lord.
And he gave that place the name of Beth-el, but before that time the town was named Luz.
And from there the line goes south to Luz, to the side of Luz (which is Beth-el), then down to Ataroth-addar, by the mountain to the south of Beth-horon the lower.
And Chephar-Ammoni and Ophni and Geba; twelve towns with their unwalled places;
The men of Ramah and Geba, six hundred and twenty-one. The men of Michmas, a hundred and twenty-two. The men of Beth-el and Ai, a hundred and twenty-three.
He has gone up from Pene-Rimmon, he has come to Aiath; he has gone past Migron, at Michmash he puts his forces in order.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Nehemiah 11
Commentary on Nehemiah 11 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 11
Jerusalem was walled round, but it was not as yet fully inhabited, and therefore was weak and despicable. Nehemiah's next care is to bring people into it; of that we have here an account.
Neh 11:1-19
Jerusalem is called here the holy city (v. 1), because there the temple was, and that was the place God had chosen to put his name there; upon this account, one would think, the holy seed should all have chosen to dwell there and have striven for a habitation there; but, on the contrary, it seems they declined dwelling there,
Neh 11:20-36
Having given an account of the principal persons that dwelt in Jerusalem (a larger account of whom he had before, 1 Chr. 9:2, etc.), Nehemiah, in these verses, gives us some account of the other cities, in which dwelt the residue of Israel, v. 20. It was requisite that Jerusalem should be replenished, yet not so as to drain the country. The king himself is served of the field, which will do little service if there be not hands to manage it. Let there therefore be no strife, no envy, no contempt, no ill will, between the inhabitants of the cities and those of the villages; both are needful, both useful, and neither can be spared.