So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days. According to Josephus ('Ant. Jud.,' Nehemiah 11:5, § 8), the work of restoration occupied two years and four months, or 840 days, instead of fifty-two.
And this period has been thought so much more probable than the smaller one, that moderns generally have accepted it, while some have even proposed to alter our present text of Nehemiah by the insertion of u-shnathayim, "and two years," at the end of this verse (Ewald).
But the authority of Josephus on matters of remote history is so small, and the whole account of Nehemiah is so harmonious and consistent with itself, that alteration seems quite unnecessary. Nehemiah leaves Susa in Nisan, probably towards the middle or close of the month, for his preparations must have taken him some time.
He would be likely to be nearly three months on his journey, and would thus reach Jerusalem about the middle of July—say July 15. He then rested three days, surveyed the wall, laid his plan before the nobles, arranged the working parties, and set to work.
It was his object to hasten matters as much as possible; and he may well have commenced the rebuilding within ten days of his arrival. Fifty-two days from July 25 would bring him to Sept. 15, which corresponds, as nearly as may be, to the 25th of Elul.
There is no difficulty in supposing that the wall could have been repaired in this space. The materials were ready at hand; the working parties were numerous; the workmen full of zeal. If we estimate the circumference of the wall at four miles, which is probably beyond the truth, and the working parties at forty-two (Ewald), it will follow that each party had, on the average, to repair 168 yards, or at the rate of between three and four yards a day.
There was probably no work done on the sabbaths, and there may have been one or two days of interruption, when attack seemed imminent (Nehemiah 4:13-15); but otherwise the work was carried on without pause from early dawn to dark (ibid.
verse 21). The wall attained to half its height in a very short time (ibid. verse 6),—there was then a brief interruption,—after which came the main work of completing the entire circuit to its full height.
It is possible that the fifty-two days are counted from the "return to work (ibid. verse 15).