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2. One of my brethren. The Hebrew word translated “brethren” is often used of more distant relatives than blood brothers (see on 1 Chron. 2:7). Hanani, however, seems likely to have been the actual brother of Nehemiah, from the similar reference to him in ch. 7:2.

I asked them. The arrival of Hanani and other Jews from the homeland seems to have been the first contact Nehemiah had been able to make with the returned exiles in Judea since the beginning of hostilities between Artaxerxes and Megabyzos, the satrap of the province called “Beyond the River,” of which Judea was a part (see on Ezra 4:10). During the period of Megabyzos’ rebellion very little reliable news from Judea seems to have reached Nehemiah, though he may have heard rumors of a Samaritan attack on Jerusalem and the destruction by them of a part of the recently rebuilt city wall. This being the case, Nehemiah would be anxious for further news. This came with the arrival of his own brother and other Jews with an eyewitness report of events that had probably taken place during the interruption of communications between Persia and Judea. See p. 350.