16. Then sent I for Eliezer, &c.] Accordingly, he sends eleven of the principal persons of his company to Iddo, a very considerable man at Casiphia, a place of the Babylonish province, where he knew there were a great number of the families of the Levites residing, desiring him to use all his influence to send a number of them, and the inferior officers called Nethinim, to go with him to Jerusalem. Pyle. Or, by "the place Casiphia," ver. 17, may be meant, mount Caspius, near the Caspian sea, between Media and Hyrcania, where were many captives. Calmet. 22. Unto an hundred talents of silver,] Amounting to the sum of about £35,350, according to Bishop Cumberland's computation of the Hebrew silver talents; but, whether these or any other talents were meant, cannot be ascertained. Pyle. 23. Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven, &c.] Jacobus Capellus says of these words, that they ought to be written on the palaces of kings in letters of gold, and engraven on the hearts of all the faithful with a pen of adamant. So strong a sense of God's supreme authority do they express, and so clearly do they mark out the regard that is due from the greatest kings and potentates to His most sacred commands. Bp. Patrick.