Charles Ellicott Commentary Nehemiah 4
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Nehemiah 4
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Nehemiah 4
"But it came to pass that, when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews." — Nehemiah 4:1 (ASV)
Mocked the Jews. — The mockery comes afterwards. Here, as often in Nehemiah, a general statement is made which is afterwards expanded.
"And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What are these feeble Jews doing? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, seeing they are burned?" — Nehemiah 4:2 (ASV)
His brethren and the army of Samaria. —The counsellors and bodyguard of Sanballat.
Will they fortify themselves? —Rather, will they leave them to themselves? The nations are referred to; but contempt is not scrupulous or precise.
Will they sacrifice? —This is the provocation of God mentioned in Nehemiah 4:5.
"Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn back their reproach upon their own head, and give them up for a spoil in a land of captivity;" — Nehemiah 4:4 (ASV)
Hear, O our God. —The habit of Nehemiah is to turn everything to devotion as he goes on. This prayer is full of an angry jealousy for the honour of a jealous God.
They have provoked you. —The tone of its holy revenge pervades the Old Testament, and has not altogether departed in the New.
"So we built the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto half [the height] thereof: for the people had a mind to work." — Nehemiah 4:6 (ASV)
Unto the half.—Up to half the height the wall was now continuous.
"But it came to pass that, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem went forward, [and] that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth;" — Nehemiah 4:7 (ASV)
Were made up. —Arose to the height previously mentioned.
Began to be stopped. —The wall, they heard, was continuous. The tribes here enumerated were only small parties under the immediate influence of Sanballat: nothing beyond that would have been likely to occur among common subjects of Persia.
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