Nehemiah 11:31

The children also of Benjamin from Geba dwelt at Michmash, and Aija, and Bethel, and in their villages,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(31) From Geba.—This verse should read: the children also of Benjamin dwelt from Geba to Michmash.

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

Many of the places mentioned in these verses are mentioned in Joshua 15:27-39; Joshua 18:21-28.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

25. some of the children of Judah dwelt at Kirjath-arba—The whole region in which the villages here mentioned were situated had been completely devastated by the Chaldean invasion; and, therefore, it must be assumed, that these villages had been rebuilt before "the children dwelt in them."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The children also of Benjamin, from Geba, dwelt at Michmash,.... Geba was a city on the southern border of Benjamin, Joshua 18:24 and Michmash on the northern, of which see 1 Samuel 13:2 in this and the four following verses are the names of several cities in the tribe of Benjamin, inhabited by the men of that tribe, as Alia, the same with Ai, that lay on the east of Bethel, here also mentioned, see Joshua 7:2 Anathoth, the birth place of Jeremiah the prophet, Jeremiah 1:1. Nob, a city of the priests, 1 Samuel 21:1. Ananiah is nowhere else mentioned; Hazor is to be distinguished from another of this name in the tribe of Naphtali, Joshua 19:36. Ramah, a place well known in Benjamin, Joshua 18:25. Gittaim, of which see 2 Samuel 4:3. Hadid, the same with Adida, which lay in a plain,"Simon also set up Adida in Sephela, and made it strong with gates and bars.'' (1 Maccabees 12:38)Zeboim, a valley of this name, is read in 1 Samuel 13:18. Neballat we read of nowhere else; of Lod and Ono, see 1 Chronicles 8:12 and the valley of craftsmen, or Chorasin, 1 Chronicles 4:14.

Geneva Study Bible

The children also of Benjamin from Geba dwelt at Michmash, and Aija, and Bethel, and in their villages.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

31. The children also of Benjamin from Geba dwelt at Michmash] R.V. The children of Benjamin also dwelt from Geba onward, at Michmash. The list of Benjamite towns starts from Geba, about 10 or 12 miles N. of Jerusalem, the modern Djibia. It is strange that the R.V. having altered the preposition from ‘at’ to ‘in’ in Nehemiah 11:25-29 should leave ‘at’ unaltered in Nehemiah 11:31-32.

Aija] Probably the same as Ai, which is mentioned along with ‘Michmas’ and ‘Beth-el’ in Ezra 2:28, where see note.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 31. - The children also of Benjamin from Geba dwelt at Michmash. Rather, "Also the children of Benjamin dwelt from Geba to Michmash, and Aija, and Bethel," etc. Geba was reckoned an extreme city of Benjamin towards the west, and consequently occurs last in the first list of Joshua (Nehemiah 18:24). Its proximity to Michmash and Aija (Aiath) appears in Isaiah 10:28, 29. All three places were in the near vicinity of Bethel. Nehemiah 11:31

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The dwellings of the Benjamites. Nehemiah 11:31 The children of Benjamin dwelt from Geba to Michmash, Aija, etc. Geba, according to 2 Kings 23:8 and Joshua 14:10, the northern boundary of the kingdom of Judah, is the half-ruined village of Jibia in the Wady el Jib, three leagues north of Jerusalem, and three-quarters of a league north-east of Ramah (Er Ram); see on Joshua 18:24. Michmash (מכמשׁ or מכמס), now Mukhmas, sixty-three minutes north-east of Geba, and three and a half leagues north of Jerusalem; see rem. on 1 Samuel 13:2. Aija (עיּא or עיּת, Isaiah 10:28), probably one with העי, Joshua 7:2; Joshua 8:1., the situation of which is still a matter of dispute, Van de Velde supposing it to be the present Tell el Hadshar, three-quarters of a league south-east of Beitin; while Schegg, on the contrary, places it in the position of the present Tayibeh, six leagues north of Jerusalem (see Delitzsch on Isa. at Isaiah 10:28-32, etc., translation), - a position scarcely according with Isaiah 10:28., the road from Tayibeh to Michmash and Geba not leading past Migron (Makhrun), which is not far from Beitin. We therefore abide by the view advocated by Krafft and Strauss, that the ruins of Medinet Chai or Gai, east of Geba, point out the situation of the ancient Ai or Ajja; see rem. on Joshua 7:2. Bethel is the present Beitin; see on Joshua 7:2. The position of Nob is not as yet certainly ascertained, important objections existing to its identification with the village el-Isawije, between Anta and Jerusalem; comp. Valentiner (in the Zeitschrift d. deutsch. morgld. Gesellsch. xii. p. 169), who, on grounds worthy of consideration, transposes Nob to the northern heights before Jerusalem, the road from which leads into the valley of Kidron. Ananiah (ענניה), a place named only here, is conjectured by Van de Velde (after R. Schwartz), Mem. p. 284, to be the present Beit Hanina (Arab. hnı̂nâ), east of Nebi Samwil; against which conjecture even the exchange of ע and ח raises objections; comp. Tobler, Topographie, ii. p. 414. Hazor of Benjamin, supposed by Robinson (Palestine) to be Tell 'Assur, north of Tayibeh, is much more probably found by Tobler, Topographie, ii. p. 400, in Khirbet Arsr, perhaps Assur, Arab. ‛ṣûr, eight minutes eastward of Bir Nebla (between Rama and Gibeon); comp. Van de Velde, Mem. p. 319. Ramah, now er Rm, two leagues north of Jerusalem; see rem. on Joshua 18:25. Githaim, whither the Beerothites fled, 2 Samuel 4:3, is not yet discovered. Tobler (dritte Wand. p. 175) considers it very rash to identify it with the village Katanneh in Wady Mansur. Hadid, Ἀδιδά, see rem. on Ezra 2:33. Zeboim, in a valley of the same name (1 Samuel 13:18), is not yet discovered. Neballat, mentioned only here, is preserved in Beith Nebala, about two leagues north-east of Ludd (Lydda); comp. Rob. Palestine, and Van de Velde, Mem. p. 336. With respect to Lod and Ono, see rem. on 1 Chronicles 8:12; and on the valley of craftsmen, comp. 1 Chronicles 4:14. The omission of Jericho, Gibeon, and Mizpah is the more remarkable, inasmuch as inhabitants of these towns are mentioned as taking part in the building of the wall (Nehemiah 3:2, Nehemiah 3:7).