What are we to understand from the words, “there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass”?
We are to understand that the ground upon which Nehemiah was now passing was too perpendicular and/or strewn from stone for his donkey to traverse safely. It is well known that the southeast (and some of the east) side of Jerusalem pitched steeply into a ravine. Presumably Nehemiah dismounted his animal to do his further inspection on foot.
14 Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool, but there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass.