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Nehemiah 3 Bible study: Next to him
Nehemiah 3 isn't a dull list: it walks the wall from the sheep gate round to the sheep gate, priests, goldsmiths, a perfumer, district rulers and Shallum's daughters side by side, and under almost every "made repairs" is chazaq, "be strong", 35 times in the chapter; one line of holding back, and Nehemiah himself isn't named once.
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“Above the horse gate, the priests made repairs, everyone across from his own house.”
Try it · Did you catch it?
“Nehemiah 3:12 says Shallum the son of Hallohesh made repairs with his daughters.”
Is that in Nehemiah 3, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
A list that walks round the wall
Chapter 3 can look like a list of hard names. Read it slowly and it walks. It starts at a gate: "Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the sheep gate" (3:1). Then it moves along the wall, one builder at a time: "Next to him the men of Jericho built" (3:2), "Next to them, Meremoth the son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz made repairs" (3:4). From 3:16 the words are mostly "After him" (3:16, 3:17, 3:18). And it ends where it began: "Between the ascent of the corner and the sheep gate, the goldsmiths and the merchants made repairs" (3:32). Next to him has, in Hebrew, the word yad, "hand", which Brown-Driver-Briggs also gives as "Fig. = side" (tap Next to). Each name is set at the side of the one before.
Where it leads to Jesus
One sows, and another reaps
Nehemiah 3:2leads toJohn 4:36-38
Nehemiah 3 names builder after builder on one wall: "Next to him the men of Jericho built. Next to them Zaccur the son of Imri built" (3:2), and so on round to "the goldsmiths and the merchants made repairs" (3:32). No one in the chapter builds it all. Jesus spoke of one work shared among many workers: "He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit to eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you haven’t labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor" (John 4:36-38). Jesus doesn't cite Nehemiah, so setting the two side by side is a reading, resting on a shared subject: a work shared out among many workers, each with a part. Some hear in his words the same shape as the chapter, each worker's part joined to another's, and the joy shared. Others keep them apart: Jesus speaks of a harvest "to eternal life" (John 4:36) and of sending his disciples to reap where others labored (John 4:38), one after another, while Nehemiah's builders work side by side on a city wall.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Nehemiah 3
That was a taste
The rest of Nehemiah 3 is waiting in Favor
- "Made repairs" is "be strong"
- Who built
- One line of holding back
- The same names at the dedication
- Names you'll meet again
- The tower of Hananel
- 12 questions as you read
- 11 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Nehemiah 3 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
חָזַקchazaqsay kha-ZAK
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "be or grow firm, strong, strengthen", and among its senses, "support = repair". Strong's: "to fasten upon; hence, to seize, be strong". The WEB gives it in this chapter as made repairs or repaired, from "Meremoth the son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz made repairs" (3:4) to "the goldsmiths and the merchants made repairs" (3:32). Of the 42 times it comes in the Hebrew of Nehemiah, 35 are in this chapter. It is the verb of 2:18: "So they strengthened their hands for the good work" (2:18). In this chapter it is behind almost every made repairs and repaired; the exceptions are 3:25 and the second repaired of 3:15, where the Hebrew has no verb there at all.
For your group
Nehemiah 3 Bible study questions
- 1Priests, goldsmiths, a perfumer, rulers of districts, and Shallum with his daughters all worked on one wall (3:1, 3:8, 3:12). What shared work are you part of right now, and what is your stretch of it?
- 2"Their nobles didn’t put their necks to the Lord’s work" (3:5), yet the Tekoites came back for another portion (3:27). When people around you hold back, what keeps you going, and what makes you want to stop?
- 3Several builders repaired "across from his own house" (3:28-29). Why might it matter to start with what is right in front of you? Where is that for you this week?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Nehemiah 3 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Favor takes the Bible as one story, in order, so you'll reach Nehemiah 3 with everything that leads up to it in view. Start from Genesis, or meet Jesus first in the Gospels. You can read the text of any chapter in Favor's Look up whenever you like.
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I've never really read the Bible. Is this for me?
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The World English Bible, a modern, readable translation in the public domain. God's name appears as "the LORD", as in most English Bibles.
Is Favor tied to a church?
No. Favor is non-denominational. Where Christians read a passage differently, it shows the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home