Nehemiah 6:3

3 so I sent them messengers with this message: "I'm too busy with important work to come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it to come down to you?"

Nehemiah 6:3 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 6:3

And I sent messengers unto them
He did not show any open contempt of them, nor did he even return answer by the messenger that came from them, but sent some of his own people to them:

saying, I am doing a great work;
was about an affair of great importance, very busy, and not at leisure to give them a meeting:

so that I cannot come down;
Jerusalem being built on an eminence, and the place proposed to meet at in a plain, going thither is expressed by coming down:

why should the work cease, while I leave it, and come down to you?
signifying that it would cease if he left it; and it being of greater consequence than anything they could have to converse about, he argues it would be wrong to relinquish it on such an account; this was the reason he thought fit to give, but was not the only, nor the principal reason, which is suggested in the preceding verse.

Nehemiah 6:3 In-Context

1 When it was reported to Sanvalat, Toviyah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and that not a single gap was left in it - although up to that time I hadn't yet set up the doors in the gateways -

2 Sanvalat and Geshem sent me a message which said, "Come, let's meet together in one of the villages of the Ono Valley." But they were planning to do me harm;

3 so I sent them messengers with this message: "I'm too busy with important work to come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it to come down to you?"

4 They kept sending this sort of message to me - four times - and I answered them the same way.

5 The fifth time, with the same purpose, Sanvalat sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand,