Nehemiahchapter 4
23 verses · Nehemiah · 5th century BC · History
Meanwhile, the people of Judah said: “The strength of the laborer fails, and there is so much rubble that we will never be able to rebuild the wall.”
Introduction
Nehemiah, History, Nehemiah Overview.
Nehemiah wrote this from inside the work, while the wall stood half built. His first hearers were labourers and their families, tired, short of materials and surrounded by hostile neighbours. The chapter shows opposition growing from words into a plan of attack, and discouragement rising among the builders themselves. Listen for the two short prayers set into the story, and for how every threat is met with a practical order. The chapter holds prayer and preparation together from its first scene to its last. It speaks to anyone who has to finish work while afraid.
Context
- Who
- Workers who had reached the stage where the job was hardest and least impressive
- What
- Mockery and a planned attack from Judah's neighbours, discouragement among the builders, and Nehemiah's measures to guard the work.
- Where
- The half-built wall of Jerusalem, with Samaria to the north, Ammon to the east, Ashdod to the west and Arab peoples to the south.
- When
- 445 BC, partway through the fifty-two days of the rebuilding.
- Why
- To show how the work continued under threat, by prayer joined to watchfulness and ordered defence.
Historical context
The opposition escalates in stages, and the first stage is ridicule. Sanballat mocks the workmen in front of the army of Samaria and Tobiah adds the line about a fox breaking down their stone wall. When mockery fails, the neighbours conspire to attack, Samaria to the north, Ammon to the east, Ashdod on the coast, Arabs to the south. Jerusalem was surrounded by parties who all preferred it weak.
Show the rest of the historical context, 2 more paragraphs
The turning point is a morale collapse from inside: the strength of the labourers is failing, there is much rubbish, and the same complaint keeps coming from Jews living near the enemy, "from all places whence ye shall return unto us they will be upon you."
Nehemiah's answer is military organisation. He stations families by clan behind the exposed sections with swords, spears and bows; half the men work while half stand guard in armour; the load-carriers work one-handed with a weapon in the other; the builders keep a sword strapped on. A trumpeter stays beside him, because the work is spread thin along a long wall and help has to be summoned to the point of attack.
Significance
The sentence that carried out of this chapter is his rally: "Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses."
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And the practical faith underneath it: "our God shall fight for us," said by a man who had just handed out weapons and set a watch. From that day they slept in their clothes.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter has no place in the synagogue year. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for Nehemiah, and no festival reading.
The corpus ties one verse of it to the Talmud's opening tractate. Under its fifteenth verse, by the corpus's own count, it sets Berakhot 2b:8 with the Jerusalem Talmud at Berakhot 1:1:5 and 1:1:6, and Megillah 20b:4.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The corpus numbers this chapter by the Hebrew text, so its first verse is the report that the wall was being repaired. Rashi reads the Hebrew idiom as healing. The phrase means the wall attained a cure, with the sense of bandaging and healing (Rashi on Nehemiah 4:1:1 and 4:1:2).
The complaint of Judah he reads as the words of the men carrying the loads. "Those who bear and load the stones and the wood for the building of the wall have failed in their strength, for they have no more strength to build because of the enemies." (Rashi on Nehemiah 4:4:2). The plot of the enemies he gives in their own voice, a surprise attack that would stop the building (Rashi on Nehemiah 4:5:2).
The warning ten times over he reads with care. The Jews who lived among the enemies came to Nehemiah as many as ten times to tell him that war was coming, and to urge the builders who were scattered along the wall to gather (Rashi on Nehemiah 4:6:1 and 4:6:2). Nehemiah then set the fighting men by families behind the wall and on the bare rocks (Rashi on Nehemiah 4:7:1 and 4:7:2).
Rashi's notes on the armed builders keep the picture concrete. From that day half the mighty men built and half stood armed to guard them (Rashi on Nehemiah 4:10:1). The builders and the carriers worked with one hand and held weapons with the other (Rashi on Nehemiah 4:11:1). "How were they building? They were all girded, each one with his sword on his waist, and thus did they build." (Rashi on Nehemiah 4:12:1). The last verse he reads as vigilance, that they were always zealous in guarding (Rashi on Nehemiah 4:17:1).
The corpus carries two further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Ibn Ezra on Nehemiah 4:2:1 and Metzudat David on Nehemiah 4:15:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries seven rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the fourth verse it holds Eikhah Rabbah 1:43. On the seventh it holds Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 38:24. On the fifteenth it holds Berakhot 2b:8, Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 1:1:5, Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 1:1:6, Megillah 20b:4 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 84:6. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Nehemiah 4:1:1 to 4:17:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Nehemiah 4:2:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Nehemiah 4:15:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/nehemiah/4.json, the 7 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Sanballat's mockery, and a people with a mind to work
Nehemiah 4:1-3
He ridiculed the Jews: Sanballat hears that the wall rises and answers with contempt before he answers with force, mocking feeble Jews who cannot finish what they started. Matthew Henry reads the sequence as the pattern of every threatened enemy, ridicule tried first because it costs nothing and works if it lands.
Nehemiah 4:1
“But it came to pass, that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall,.... Or were building it; for as yet it was not finished, see Neh 4:6, he was wroth, and took great indignation; inwardly, though outwardly he pretended to treat the work with contempt, as if it never would be accomplished, which yet he feared: and mocked the Jews; as a set of foolish builders, and unable to finish what they had begun.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Nehemiah 4:1
“The strength and safety of the church are the grief and vexation of its enemies. They despised it, and made it the subject of their ridicule. In this they sufficiently displayed their malice; but good was brought out of it; for, looking upon it as a foolish undertaking that would sink under its own weight, they did not go about to obstruct it till it was too late.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
before his associates and the army of Samaria: Clarke notes that Sanballat, as governor, commanded Samaria's army and meant to stir the soldiers against Nehemiah and the Jews. His five questions mock the builders' strength, their sacrifices, their haste and their burnt stones. Each question expects the answer no.
Nehemiah 4:2
“The army of Samaria - As he was governor, he had the command of the army, and he wished to excite the soldiers to second his views against Nehemiah and his men. What do these feeble Jews? - We may remark here, in general, that the enemies of God’s work endeavor by all means to discredit and destroy it, and those who are employed in it. 1. They despise the workmen: What do these feeble Jews? 2. They endeavor to turn all into ridicule: Will they fortify themselves?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Matthew Henry supposes the taunts were sent to Nehemiah as a message, meant to jeer him out of the work. He answers with prayer in verse 4. Tobiah the Ammonite stands beside Sanballat, as he did when the two first heard of the rebuilding (2:10).
Nehemiah 4:3
“He had notice brought him of what they said. It is probable that they themselves sent him a message to this purport, to discourage him, hoping to jeer him out of his attempt; but he did not answer these fools according to their folly; he did not upbraid them with their weakness, but looked up to God by prayer.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Nehemiah 4:4-5
for we are despised: Nehemiah answers no insult directly and prays it upward: "Turn their scorn back upon their own heads" (4:4). Adam Clarke notes that the Hebrew verb form allows a declaratory reading as well as a request. The plea "Do not cover up their iniquity" is Nehemiah's whole reply.
Nehemiah 4:4
“Turn their reproach upon their own head - A prayer of this kind, understood literally, is not lawful for any Christian. Jesus, our great master, has said, “Love your enemies; do good to them that hate you; and pray for them that despitefully use you.” Such sayings as the above are excusable in the mouth of a Jew, under severe irritation. See the next verse, Neh 4:5 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
for they have provoked the builders: Clarke judges such a prayer, taken literally, sits uneasily beside the command of Jesus to love enemies, and excuses it in a man under provocation. The ground of the prayer is the last clause. Mocking the builders is treated as sin before God.
Nehemiah 4:5
“Let not their sin be blotted out - These are the most terrible imprecations; but probably we should understand them as declaratory, for the same form of the verb, in the Hebrew, is used as precative and imperative. Turn their reproach - Their reproach shall be turned. Give them for a prey - They shall be given for a prey. Cover not their iniquity - Their iniquity shall not be covered. Let not their sin be blotted out - Their sin shall not be blotted out.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
had a mind to work: The narrator gives the reason in a phrase found nowhere else in Scripture: "the people had a mind to work" (4:6). Clarke renders the Hebrew more literally as a heart to work, the will engaged behind the labor of the hands. The builders go on after three verses of scorn.
Nehemiah 4:6
“For the people had a mind to work - The original is very emphatic: ויהי לב לעם לעשות vayehi leb leam laasoth, “For the people had a heart to work.” Their hearts were engaged in it; and where the heart is engaged, the work of God goes on well. The whole of this 6th verse is omitted by the Septuagint.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Set a watch: remember the Lord, great and terrible
Nehemiah 4:7-9
they were furious: Sanballat's coalition widens as "the Arabs, Ammonites, and Ashdodites" join him, and mockery becomes conspiracy. Nehemiah answers in one sentence: "So we prayed to our God and posted a guard against them day and night" (4:9). Prayer and watching stand together, the pairing of Christ's instruction to watch and pray.
all of them conspired to come: Barnes takes the conspirators as a band kept by Sanballat as his own guard, part of the army of Samaria named in verse 2. An attack by such a band could pass as a local quarrel. Barnes judges that the Persian king might overlook it.
posted a guard against them day and night: Henry joins the two: to pray to God with no guard posted tempts Him, and to guard with no prayer slights Him. Spurgeon preached the verse as two guards. Barnes places this guard against the enemies on the north side of Jerusalem.
Nehemiah 4:9
“NEHEMIAH and the Jews with him were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Sanballat and others were angry with them and tried to stop the work. They determined to pounce upon the people on a sudden and slay them—and so put an end to what they were doing. Our text tells us what Nehemiah and his companions did in this emergency—"Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them." These people had not only to build the wall of Jerusalem, but to watch against their enemies at the same time.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2254: “The Two Guards Praying and Watching” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
2 more voices on this verse
Nehemiah 4:9
“Having prayed, he set a watch against them. The instructions Christ has given us in our spiritual warfare agree with this example, Matt. xxvi. If we think to secure ourselves by prayer only, without watchfulness, we are slothful and tempt God; if by watchfulness, without prayer, we are proud and slight God; and, either way, we forfeit his protection.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Nehemiah 4:9
“Because of them - Or, “over against them,” i. e. opposite to the place where they were encamped, probably on the north side of the city.”
Nehemiah 4:10-12
The builders lose heart before the enemy strikes a blow. The enemy's plan surfaces at the same moment, and Jews living nearby bring the warning "ten times over" (4:12). Discouragement and conspiracy arrive together, and the chapter answers them as one.
Nehemiah 4:10
“The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed - They worked both day and night, scarcely ever putting off their clothes, except for the purpose of being washed, Neh 4:21, Neh 4:23. Much rubbish - The ruins they were obliged to clear away, before they could dig the foundation for a new wall: and in this labor they were nearly exhausted; see Neh 5:15.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Nehemiah 4:10
“REMEMBER that Jerusalem had been totally destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and what is meant by the destruction by the Babylonians may be inferred from the vast heaps of the dust of powdered bricks and charred wood which have been discovered upon the sites of cities which were utterly razed to the ground by the fierce soldiers of that terrible king. The ruins are frequently so complete that even tradition has forgotten the name of the mound or heap which is the sole memorial to mark the sepulcher of a queenly city.”
The enemies' plan rests on surprise. Henry sets this threat beside the despair of Judah: the words of the enemies outside and of the people inside aimed at the same end. The plot fails at verse 15 once it is known.
told us ten times over: Clarke finds this verse hard in Hebrew, where translators supply the words of the warning the Jews brought. The Septuagint has the enemies coming up from every place against the Jews. The Jews who lived nearby said it again and again.
Nehemiah 4:12
“From all places whence ye shall return unto us - This verse is extremely difficult. Our translators have supplied the words, they will be upon you, which have nothing correspondent in the Hebrew. The Septuagint have given a good sense, Αναβαινουσιν εκ παντων των τοπων εφ’ ἡμας, They come up from all places against us.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Nehemiah 4:13-15
behind the lowest sections of the wall: Nehemiah stations the people "by families with their swords, spears, and bows" in the low and exposed places. He answers their fear on the ground of his prayer. When the enemy learns the plan is known, the text credits God directly, "God had frustrated it," and the builders return.
Nehemiah 4:13
“Therefore set I in the lower places behind the wall,.... Where the wall was lowest, and the enemy could more easily break it down, or get over it: and on the higher places; where the wall was higher; or rather on the towers upon the walls, as the word signifies the tops of rocks, which are dry and smooth, see Eze 24:2. I even set the people after their families; according to their rank, number, strength, and valour: with their swords, their spears, and their bows; with weapons they could use both near, and at a distance.”
1 more voice on this verse
Nehemiah 4:13
“The lower places - The places where those within the walls had the least advantage of elevation, the naturally weak places, where an enemy was likely to make his attack.”
Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome: The title great and awesome repeats Nehemiah's prayer at 1:5, turned into a charge for battle. Clarke spells out what each named group stood to lose: sons to death or captivity, daughters and wives to violence, and homes to seizure. Fear of the enemy is answered by memory of God.
Nehemiah 4:14
“Be not ye afraid of them - Are they more terrible or stronger than God? Fight for your brethren - Your own countrymen, who worship the same God, and are come from the same stock; your sons, whom they wish to slay or lead into captivity; your daughters and wives, whom they wish to deflower and defile; and your houses, which they wish to seize and occupy as their own. They had every thing at stake; and therefore they must fight pro aris et focis, for their religion, their lives, and their property.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
One hand to the work, the other holding a weapon
God had frustrated it: Matthew Henry notes that the plan depended wholly on surprise, and once it was known it was finished. The verse credits the failure to God. Each builder went back to his own work on the wall, the same section assigned in chapter 3.
Nehemiah 4:15
“When they found that their design was discovered, and that the Jews were upon their guard, they concluded that it was to no purpose to attempt any thing, but that God had brought their counsel to nought. They knew they could not gain their point but by surprise, and, if their plot was known, it was quashed.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Nehemiah 4:16-18
half of my servants did the work: Half of Nehemiah's men work while the other half hold "spears, shields, bows, and armor" (4:16). The carriers work "with one hand and held a weapon with the other," and every builder has "his sword strapped at his side" (4:18). Work and defense are carried by the same hands.
Nehemiah 4:16
“Half - wrought in the work - This is no unusual thing, even in the present day, in Palestine: people sowing their seed are often attended by an armed man, to prevent the Arabs from robbing them of their seed, which they will not fail to do if not protected. Habergeons - In the Franco-Gallic, hautbergon signifies a coat of mail; but as in Teutonic hais signifies the neck, and bergen, to cover or defend; it may be considered rather as signifying a breastplate, or armor for the breast.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
worked with one hand and held a weapon: Wesley reads the one hand and the other as a proverb for readiness, like a man who carries bread in one hand and a stone. Clarke takes it plainly: each laborer kept his weapon at hand.
Nehemiah 4:17
“With one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon - That is, he had his arms at hand, and was as fully prepared to fight as to work. So Ovid, Epist. xi., Canace Macario, ver. 1: - Si qua tamen caecis errabunt scripta lituris, Oblitus a dominae caede libellus erit: Dextra tenet calamum; strictum tenet altera ferrum: Et jacet in gremio charta soluta meo. If streaming blood my fatal letter stain, Imagine, ere you read, the writer slain.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Nehemiah 4:17
“A Weapon - This is to be taken figuratively; being a proverbial speech, as when they say of a man pretending kindness, he carries bread in one hand, and a stone in another. Thus must we work out our salvation, with the weapons of our warfare in our hands.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
the trumpeter stayed beside me: Henry notes that the builders had to be spread out to work and drawn together to fight, and the trumpeter beside Nehemiah joined the two. Gill sees each man ready for either service. The use of the horn is given in verse 20.
Nehemiah 4:18
“For the builders had everyone his sword girded by his side, and so builded,.... Thus accoutred he wrought, and was prepared for either service: and he that sounded the trumpet was by me; to give the alarm of war, that everyone might lay aside his work, and prepare for the battle: this officer stood by Nehemiah, that when he found it necessary, might give him orders to sound his trumpet, for the men to gather to him.”
1 more voice on this verse
Nehemiah 4:18
“When they acted as workmen, it was requisite they should be dispersed wherever there was work to do; but when as soldiers it was requisite they should come into close order, and be found in a body. Thus should the labourers in Christ's building be ready to unite against a common foe.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Nehemiah 4:19-20
The work is too great for every family to defend itself. Nehemiah gives one sign to call them together, and grounds the plan in one line: "Our God will fight for us!" The horn gathers a scattered workforce to a single point without anyone leaving his post before the signal.
Nehemiah 4:19
“And I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people,.... See Gill on Neh 4:14, the work is great and large; the building of the wall all around the city of Jerusalem: and we are separated upon the wall one far from another; some at work on one part of it, and some at another, so that the distance between one another, at least in the further part, was very considerable.”
Wherever you hear the sound of the horn: Clarke explains the danger: a long wall with scattered crews could be taken one crew at a time. Nehemiah moved along the whole wall with the trumpeter, so the call could come from any point. The closing cry echoes Exodus 14:14.
Nehemiah 4:20
“Ye hear the sound of the trumpet - As the walls were very extensive, and the workmen consequently much scattered, their enemies might easily attack and destroy them successively, he therefore ordered them all to work as near to each other as they could; and himself, who was everywhere surveying the work, kept a trumpeter always with him, who was to sound when the enemy approached; and all were instantly to run to the place where they heard the sound.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Nehemiah 4:21-23
until the stars came out: Nehemiah orders every man and servant to "spend the night inside Jerusalem, so that they can stand guard by night and work by day" (4:22). He keeps the rule he sets: neither he nor his guards changed their clothes, and "each carried his weapon, even to go for water."
Nehemiah 4:21
“Thus ought we to be always upon our guard against our spiritual enemies, not only (as here) while it is light, but when it is dark, for they are the rulers of the darkness of this world.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
spend the night inside Jerusalem: Clarke notes that builders from the country towns usually went home to their families at night. The order kept every man and his servant in the city. Clarke adds that they were then ready to help their brothers in case of attack.
Nehemiah 4:22
“Let every one with his servant lodge within Jerusalem - The country people were accustomed, after their day’s labor, to return to their families; now being so formidably threatened, he obliged them all to sleep in Jerusalem, that they might be ready, in case of attack, to help their brethren. All this man’s arrangements were wise and judicious.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
changed out of our clothes: The last clause is terse in Hebrew, and Clarke gives a literal rendering: a man, his weapon, the water. The Berean reads it as weapons carried even to go for water. Nehemiah's own brothers and servants kept the same rule.
Nehemiah 4:23
“None of us put off our clothes, saving that every one put them off for washing - The Hebrew for all this is only אין אנחנו פשטים בגדינו איש שלחו המים ein anachnu poshetim begadeynu ish shilcho hammayim; which Montanus translates, Non nos exuentes vestes nostras, vir missile suum aquas; “We, not putting off our garments, a man his dart to the waters.” Of this latter clause what sense can be made? Let us hear what the ancient versions say.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.