Wesley Corpus

Ammihud - That there is so great a diversity of names between this catalogue and that of Nehem 11:4 - 36, may be ascribed to two causes: to the custom of the Hebrews, who used frequently to give several names to one person: and, to the change of times; for here they are named who came up at the first return but many of those in Nehemiah might be such as returned afterward, and came and dwelt either instead of the persons here named, or with them. And fifty - six - They are reckoned but nine hundred and twenty - eight in Neh 11:8, either because there he mentions only those that were by lot determined to dwell at Jerusalem, to whom he here adds those who freely offered themselves to it; or because some of the persons first placed there were dead, or removed from Jerusalem upon some emergent occasion. The ruler - Or, a ruler in the house of God: not the high - priest, who was Ezra, Ezr 3:8, but a chief ruler under him. Able men - Heb. mighty men of valour: which is here noted as an excellent qualification for their place; because the priests might meet with great opposition in the discharge of their office, in the execution of the censures upon all impure persons without exception, and in preserving sacred things from violation by the touch of forbidden hands. Porters - Whose office it was to keep all the gates of the temple, that no unclean person or thing might enter into it. King's gate - In the east - gate of the temple, which was so called, because the kings of Judah used to go to the temple through that gate. Under this gate he comprehends all the rest, which also were guarded by these porters. Companies - Or, according to the courses. They kept the gates successively, according to that method into which the Levites were distributed, for the more convenient management of their several offices; among which this of the porters was one. Tabernacle - Namely, in time past, when the tabernacle was standing, before the temple was built. Fathers - The Kohathites. Host - When the Israelites were in the wilderness, encamped in a military manner round about the tabernacle, with whom these were then placed.