Nehemiah 11:19

THE PORTERS AND GATEKEEPERS NUMBERED 172

"Moreover the porters, Akkub, Talmon, and their brethren, that kept watch at the gates were a hundred seventy and two. And the residue of Israel, of the priests, the Levites, were in all the cities of Judah, every one in his inheritance. But the Nethinim dwelt in Ophel: and Ziha and Gishpa were over the Nethinim."

The total number of the men living in the holy city is thus numbered at 3,044, not including women and children, nor the Nethinim. Whitcomb also gave this number as 3,044.[7] Ophel was indeed part of the holy city, having a wall of its own; and it was sometimes counted in, sometimes counted out of the city, as here. "These were augmented by a 10% levy drawn from the surrounding areas, and an unspecified number of volunteers (Nehemiah 11:2)."[8]

Scholars disagree on the exact meaning of Nehemiah 11:1. Some take it, as did Whitcomb, to mean that the population was readjusted, so that ten percent of the returnees lived in the city, and ninety percent in the Outlying areas. If so interpreted, it would mean that, "The population of Judea had increased considerably during the previous century; because the 50,000 who returned with Zerubbabel from Babylon included women and children."[9] The approximately 3,000 men in Jerusalem before this adjustment took place would mean that there were 30,000 Jewish men then living in Palestine, besides women and children. At a ratio of four to one, this would make the number of Israelites then in Judea about 120,000. Keil, however, wrote that, "The passage can have no other meaning, but that the population of Jerusalem was increased by a 10% fraction of the population living outside the city."[10] He admitted, however, that, "The statement, taken by itself, is very brief, and its connection with Nehemiah 7:5 not very evident."[11]