For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
And to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem, х gaadeer (H1447)] - a walled place, an enclosure for sheepfolds, or a fence for vineyards (Isaiah 5:5). The expression is peculiarly appropriate and beautiful, considering that Yahweh is frequently represented as "the Shepherd of Israel," and that, having re-collected his dispersed flock, he had, through the subordinate agency of the Persian monarch, placed them securely in their ancient folds in Palestine. Auberlin, Havernick, and others, refer this term to the re-establishment of the city walls (cf. Micah 7:11), but Hengstenberg ('Christology' 3:, p. 204) limits it to the temple also.