Nehemiah 3:8 - Exposition

Hananiah the son of one of the apothecaries . Or "the son of Harak-kashim." They fortified Jerusalem unto the broad wall. The Septuagint has κατέλιπον , "they left," and the Vulgate dimiserunt in the same sense, which is given also as an alternative rendering by our translators, in the margin. And no doubt the verb עזב has this for one of its meanings. But the clause has thus no satisfactory sense. That עזב is used for "to fortify" by Nehemiah is plain from Nehemiah 4:2 , and we may therefore well understand it in this sense here. Why he uses עזב here and חזק in every other place is difficult to explain, unless we suppose, with Pool, that the wall did not need regular repairs in this part, but only a little strengthening.