[154] Hilprecht, in his “Nippur Memoirs” (vol. ix. pp. 27, 28), gives instances of Persians with Babylonian wives as early as the reign of Artaxerxes I., together with many names of Hebrews who were residing in Babylonia.
[155] Taylor, “Alphabet,” vol. i. p. 258.
[156] Neh. iii. 7.
[157] Neh. ii. 13–15.
[158] The Hebrew ’abar does not of necessity mean “crossing” any valley. The word is constantly used in the Old Testament with the more general meaning to “go on,” as in the English of this passage.
[159] Neh. iii. and xii.
[160] 1 Chron. xxix. 19; Neh. ii. 8. Mishnah, Zebakhim, xii. 3; Tamid, i. 1; Middoth, i. 9.
[161] Neh. iii. 1, xii. 39; Jer. xxxi. 38; Zech. xiv. 10.
[162] Neh. iii. 1–32.
[163] Neh. iii. 3, xii. 39, xiii. 16.