Nehemiahchapter 4
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Speaks with:Nehemiah 4×3Nehemiah 2×31 Kings 20×2Acts 4×2Genesis 31×2Numbers 14×2
Summary
Chapter summary
Ridicule first. 'What are these feeble Jews doing?' asks Sanballat, and Tobiah adds that a fox going up would break down their stone wall. Nehemiah prays, and the wall rises to half its height, 'for the people had a mind to work.' When mockery fails, conspiracy follows. So 'we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night.' Judah complains that the strength of the burden-bearers is decayed and there is much rubbish. Nehemiah answers, 'Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, who is great and terrible.' From that day half held spears while half wrought, every builder with his sword girded at his side: 'our God will fight for us.'
Context
History · Nehemiah — Nehemiah overview
- A. 1–6 Sanballat's mockery, and a people with a mind to work
- B. 7–14 Set a watch: remember the Lord, great and terrible
- C. 15–23 One hand to the work, the other holding a weapon
The outline
A.Sanballat's mockery, and a people with a mind to workvv. 1 to 6
Read vv. 1 to 6 →B.Set a watch: remember the Lord, great and terriblevv. 7 to 14
Read vv. 7 to 14 →C.One hand to the work, the other holding a weaponvv. 15 to 23
Read vv. 15 to 23 →
The world behind this chapter
Nehemiah 4The history
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.
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.
What it meant to them
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."
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.
Sources cited
- Edwin Yamauchi, Persia and the Bible
- K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
- Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament (public domain)
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Nehemiah 4. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.