Matthew Poole and continuators on Nehemiah 5:18

18 Now that which was prepared for me daily, was one ox, and six choice sheep; also fowls were prepared for me, and once in ten days, store of all sorts of wine: yet for all this required not I the bread of the governour , because the bondage was heavy upon this people.

But bore it out of my own Estate: which was very considerable, his Office in the Persian Court being a place of very great profit as well as Honour, and that Profit no doubt continued to him in this his absence from the King. From this great and daily expence it seems more than probable that Nehemiah did not continue here for 12 years together, as some would think, or at least that he did not this all that time, but only during the great and present exigences and distresses of the Jews, which ceased in good part after the Walls were built, and the Hearts of all the Jews revived, and their Enemies dispirited thereby.