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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Nehemiah 2:15 - 2:15
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Then I (went on) ascending the valley and viewing the wall, and so entered by the valley-gate, and returned. וָאֱהִי with the participle expresses the continuance of an action, and hence in this place the continuous ascent of the valley and survey of the wall. The נַחַל which he ascended was doubtless the valley of Kidron (קִדְרֹון נַחַל, 2Sa 20:23; 1Ki 2:37, and elsewhere). וָאָבֹוא וָאָשׁוּב are connected, שׁוּב expressing merely the idea of repetition (Gesenius, heb. Gram. §142, 3): I came again into the valley-gate. Older expositors incorrectly explain these words to mean, I turned round, traversing again the road by which I had come; Bertheau: I turned to go farther in a westerly direction, and after making the circuit of the entire city, I re-entered by the valley-gate. This sense is correct as to fact, but inadmissible, as requiring too much to complete it. If we take אָשׁוּב adverbially, these completions are unnecessary. Nehemiah does not give the particulars of the latter portion of his circuit, but merely tells us that after having ascended the valley of Kidron, he re-entered by the valley-gate, and returned to his residence, obviously assuming, that from the upper part of the vale of Kidron he could only return to the valley-gate at the west by passing along the northern part of the wall.