Nehemiah 11:7

And these are the sons of Benjamin; Sallu the son of Meshullam, the son of Joed, the son of Pedaiah, the son of Kolaiah, the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ithiel, the son of Jesaiah.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) The Benjamites were represented by two families, and gave the city two prefects (Nehemiah 11:9).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:1-36 The distribution of the people. - In all ages, men have preferred their own ease and advantage to the public good. Even the professors of religion too commonly seek their own, and not the things of Christ. Few have had such attachment to holy things and holy places, as to renounce pleasure for their sake. Yet surely, our souls should delight to dwell where holy persons and opportunities of spiritual improvement most abound. If we have not this love to the city of our God, and to every thing that assists our communion with the Saviour, how shall we be willing to depart hence; to be absent from the body, that we may be present with the Lord? To the carnal-minded, the perfect holiness of the New Jerusalem would be still harder to bear than the holiness of God's church on earth. Let us seek first the favour of God, and his glory; let us study to be patient, contented, and useful in our several stations, and wait, with cheerful hope, for admission into the holy city of God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the margin reference notes. Both accounts appear to be extracts from a public official register which Nehemiah caused to be made of his census. The census itself seems to have been confined to the dwellers at Jerusalem. The subjoined table exhibits the differences between the accounts of the entire population of Jerusalem as given in Nehemiah and in Chronicles:

1 Chron ehemiah Tribes of Judah Of Pharez 468 Of Zerah 690 Tribe of Benjamin 956 928 Tribe of Levi Priests 1760 1192 Levites 284 Porters 212 172

According to Nehemiah's numbers, supplemented from Chronicles, the entire adult male population of the city was 3,734, which would give a total population of 14,936. According to Chronicles, supplemented from Nehemiah, the adult males were 4,370, and consequently the entire population, would have been 17,480. As the Nethinims and the Israelites of Ephraim and Manasseh 1 Chronicles 9:3 are not included in either list, we may conclude that the actual number of the inhabitants, after the efforts recorded in Nehemiah 11:1-2, was not much short of 20,000.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. at Jerusalem dwelt certain of the children of Judah—The discrepancy that is apparent between this [Ne 11:4-36] and the list formerly given in 1Ch 9:1-9, arose not only from the Jewish and Oriental practice of changing or modifying the names of persons from a change of circumstances, but from the alterations that must have been produced in the course of time. The catalogue in Chronicles contains those who came with the first detachment of returned exiles, while the list in this passage probably included also those who returned with Ezra and Nehemiah; or it was most probably made out afterwards, when several had died, or some, who had been inserted as going on the journey, remained, and others came in their stead.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And these are the sons of Benjamin,.... That were of that tribe, and inhabited Jerusalem, namely, that follow:

Sallu the son of Meshullam; who from him is traced up through Joed, Pedaiah, Kolaiah, Maaseiah, Ithiel, to Jesaiah.

Geneva Study Bible

And these are the sons of Benjamin; Sallu the son of Meshullam, the son of Joed, the son of Pedaiah, the son of Kolaiah, the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ithiel, the son of Jesaiah.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. Sallu the son of Meshullam] This name stands at the head of the Benjamites in 1 Chronicles 9:7-9. But otherwise the lists here vary from one another.

8 Gabbai, Sallai] The occurrence of these names, not separated by the copula, is peculiar. No connexion can be traced between the ‘Gabbai, Sallai, … Joel, … Judah,’ of our list with the ‘Ibneiah, Elah and Meshullam’ in 1 Chronicles 9:8. But there are certain peculiarities in the two lists at this point which make us suspect that the text of the original document was here at fault. Thus in our text we may remark on (1) the abruptness of ‘after him Gabbai, Sallai,’ (2) the number 928 differing from, but yet sufficiently close to, that of 956 in 1 Chron. Sallai, it has been conjectured, is the name Sallu repeated, which has crept into the text from a gloss on the word ‘after him.’ In 1 Chronicles we remark upon Meshullam occurring twice, and Ibneiah by the side of Ibnijah. The number 928, if we may argue from the analogy of Nehemiah 11:6, relates only to the house of Sallai or Gabbai Sallai. In 1 Chronicles 9:9, the number 956 represents the sons of Benjamin.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - And these are the sons of Benjamin. A verse equivalent to 1 Chronicles 9:6 would seem to have fallen out here. Nehemiah cannot have intended to leave out the descendants of Zerah, who formed more than one-half of the Jewish element in the population of Jerusalem, and furnished 690 fighting men. Sallu the son of Meshullam. Compare 1 Chronicles 9:7. The other names in the genealogy are different, the two writers singling out for mention different ancestors. Nehemiah 11:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Of the Benjamites there were two heads of houses: Sallu, and after him Gabbai-Sallai, with nine hundred and twenty-eight fathers of families. Their chief was Joel the son of Zichri, and Jehuda the son of Sennah over the city as second (prefect).