Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, on Neh 7:4

“And the city was very wide and great, and the people few in the midst thereof, and the houses were not built.”

“Now the city was large and great--The walls being evidently built on the old foundations, the city covered a large extent of surface, as all Oriental towns do, the houses standing apart with gardens and orchards intervening. This extent, in the then state of Jerusalem, was the more observable as the population was comparatively small, and the habitations of the most rude and simple construction--mere wooden sheds or coverings of loose, unmortared stones.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.