Verse 4
"Now the city was wide and large; but the people were few therein, and the houses were not builded."
This verse is actually the key to the inclusion at once of that long list of genealogies. Jerusalem was in desperate need of more inhabitants, for it was far too large a city for the few who lived there; and "Nehemiah, at once, laid plans for populating the city with PURE JEWS; and the register of those who had returned with Zerubbabel becomes his basis for determining the purity of genealogy."[12]
And the houses were not builded. "This must be understood in a relative sense, because some houses are referred to in Nehemiah 7:3."[13]
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