Nehemiah 3:7 - Exposition

Gibeon and Mispah lay due north of Jerusalem, at the distance respectively of about 5.5 and 4.5 miles The inhabitants were set to repair the middle part of the north wall . Unto the throne of the governor on this side the river . So the Septuagint; and, among moderns, Michaelis, Pool, and A. Clarke. Others translate—"the men of Gibeon and Mizpah, who belonged to the jurisdiction of the governor across the river." But this can scarcely have been the fact, since Gibeon is mentioned among the re-occupied cities in Nehemiah 7:25 , and if Bethel was Jewish, as we know that it was from Nehemiah 11:31 , Gibeon and Mizpah, which were nearer Jerusalem, cannot have remained Syrian. Altogether, there is no reason to dispute the commonly received rendering, since Nehemiah again uses ל for עד in verse 32, and the governor of Syria may well have had a "throne," or tribunal, at Jerusalem, which was usually under his jurisdiction, though exempted from his authority under the existing regime .