Nehemiah 7:4 (BSB)

Now the city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and the houses had not yet been rebuilt.

From Nehemiah 7. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Nehemiah 7:4

• Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Nehemiah 7:1-4: God saith concerning his church (Isa 62:6), I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem! This is Nehemiah's care here; for dead walls, without living watchmen, are but a poor defence to a city. I. He appointed the porters, singers, and Levites, in their places to their work.
• John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Nehemiah 7:4: Now the city was large and great,.... The circumference of it, all within the wall; for that was built on its old foundation, and enclosed as much ground as ever it did: Hecataeus (b), an Heathen writer, says the circumference of Jerusalem was fifty furlongs, which was more than six miles; but Josephus (c) makes the circuit of it but thirty three furlongs or about...
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (Reformed), Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible on Nehemiah 7:4: 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...
• Adam Clarke (Methodist), Clarke's Commentary on the Bible on Nehemiah 7:4: The houses were not builded - The city was not yet rebuilt, only a row of houses in the inside of the wall all round.