Here and there houses were scattered about, here and there was a group of buildings, but inside the walls were many great empty spaces, large pieces of unoccupied ground.
The walls had been set up on the old sites, and were about four miles in circumference.

It was a large space to fill, and, as Nehemiah looked round, he saw that whilst the city was imposing from without, it was a bare, miserable place inside.
'The city was large and great; but the people were few therein, and the houses were not builded.' Not only so, not only was the city unsightly, but there were not enough inhabitants to protect the walls.

In case of an attack, what would be done?
Four miles of wall was a long space to guard and defend, how could more hands be secured?
It was absolutely necessary that Jerusalem should have a larger population.
Yet Nehemiah found that no one wished to move from the country places round, and to come into Jerusalem.

Every town, every village in Judea was more popular than the capital.

They had rather live in sultry Jericho than on the mountain heights of Jerusalem; they preferred stony Bethel to the vine-clad hills of the City of God; they had rather live in the tiny insignificant village of Anathoth than in the capital itself.
Why was this?
Why had the Jews of Nehemiah's day such an objection to living in Jerusalem?
Why, after longing for Jerusalem all the time of the captivity, did they shrink from it on their return?
The reason was this.