Nehemiah 4:8
in Nehemiah 4and all of them conspired to come and fight against Jerusalem and create a hindrance.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
and they conspired all of them together to come and fight against Jerusalem, and to cause confusion therein.
KJV
And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.
⋯
This verse in Nehemiah 4
Commentary
5 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
they were furious
on Nehemiah 4:7-9
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.
This site's exposition
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.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
How cruel they were: We will come and slay them. If nothing less than the murder of the workmen will put a stop to the work, they will not stick at that; nay, it is their blood they thirst for, and they are glad of any pretence to glut themselves with it. What the design was and how confident they were of success: it was to cause the work to cease (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
And conspired all of them together,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Nehemiah's vigilance anticipated every difficulty, his prudent measures defeated every obstruction, and with astonishing rapidity this Jerusalem was made again "a city fortified."
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיִּקְשְׁר֤וּ | vaiyiksheru | and they conspired | H7194 → | |
| כֻלָּם֙ | khulam | all of them | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| יַחְדָּ֔ו | yachdav | together | H3162 → | 141 times |
| לָב֖וֹא | lavo' | to come | H935 → | 2568 times |
| לְהִלָּחֵ֣ם | lehilachem | to wage war | H3898 → | 177 times |
| בִּירוּשָׁלִָ֑ם | birushalim | against Jerusalem | H3389 → | 643 times |
| וְלַעֲשׂ֥וֹת | velaasot | and to make | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| ל֖וֹ | lo | for it | ||
| תּוֹעָֽה׃ | toah | confusion | H8442 → |
וַיִּקְשְׁר֤וּand they conspired
vaiyiksheruH7194 →
כֻלָּם֙all of them
khulamH3605 →5413 times
יַחְדָּ֔וtogether
yachdavH3162 →141 times
לָב֖וֹאto come
lavo'H935 →2568 times
לְהִלָּחֵ֣םto wage war
lehilachemH3898 →177 times
בִּירוּשָׁלִָ֑םagainst Jerusalem
birushalimH3389 →643 times
וְלַעֲשׂ֥וֹתand to make
velaasotH6213 →2628 times
ל֖וֹfor it
lo
תּוֹעָֽה׃confusion
toahH8442 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 20:10For I have heard the whispering of many: “Terror is on every side! Report him; let us report him!” All my trusted friends watch for my fall: “Perhaps he will be deceived so that…
it leads to
- Psalms 41:9
Even my close friend whom I trusted, the one who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.
- Psalms 31:13
For I hear the slander of many; there is terror on every side. They conspire against me and plot to take my life.
- Isaiah 29:21
those who indict a man with a word, who ensnare the mediator at the gate, and who with false charges deprive the innocent of justice.
- Jeremiah 18:18
Then some said, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah, for the law will never be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the wise, nor an oracle to the prophet. Come, let us…
- Jeremiah 6:25
Do not go out to the fields; do not walk the road. For the enemy has a sword; terror is on every side.
- Psalms 41:9
About Nehemiah

Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon, The Two Guards Praying and Watching (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2254); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
