Nehemiah 2

10. Sanballat the Horonite--Horonaim being a town in Moab, this person, it is probable, was a Moabite.
Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite--The term used indicates him to have been a freed slave, elevated to some official dignity. These were district magistrates under the government of the satrap of Syria; and they seem to have been leaders of the Samaritan faction.

11, 12. So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days--Deeply affected with the desolations of Jerusalem, and uncertain what course to follow, he remained three days before informing any one of the object of his mission [ Nehemiah 2:17 Nehemiah 2:18 ]. At the end of the third day, accompanied with a few attendants, he made, under covert of night, a secret survey of the walls and gates [ Nehemiah 2:13-15 ].

13-15. I went out by night by the gate of the valley--that is, the Jaffa gate, near the tower of Hippicus.
even before the dragon well--that is, fountain on the opposite side of the valley.
and to the dung port--the gate on the east of the city, through which there ran a common sewer to the brook Kedron and the valley of Hinnom.

14. Then--that is, after having passed through the gate of the Essenes.
I went on to the gate of the fountain--that is, Siloah, from which turning round the fount of Ophel.
to the king's pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass--that is, by the sides of this pool (Solomon's) there being water in the pool, and too much rubbish about it to permit the passage of the beast.

15. Then went I up . . . by the brook--that is, Kedron.
and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned--the gate leading to the valley of Jehoshaphat, east of the city. He went out by this gate, and having made the circuit of the city, went in by it again [BARCLAY, City of the Great King].

16-18. the rulers knew not--The following day, having assembled the elders, Nehemiah produced his commission and exhorted them to assist in the work. The sight of his credentials, and the animating strain of his address and example, so revived their drooping spirits that they resolved immediately to commence the building, which they did, despite the bitter taunts and scoffing ridicule of some influential men.