Nehemiah 6:1-6

The Enemy's Plot

1 Now when it was reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, to Geshem the Arab and to the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall, and that no breach remained in it, 1although at that time I had not set up the doors in the gates,
2 then Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me, saying, "Come, let us meet together at Chephirim in the plain of 2Ono." But they were planning to harm me.
3 So I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and I cannot * come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?"
4 They sent messages to me four times in this manner, and I answered them in the same way.
5 Then Sanballat sent his servant to me in the same manner a fifth time with an open letter in his hand.
6 In it was written, "It is reported among the nations, and Gashmu says, that 3you and the Jews are planning to rebel; therefore * you are rebuilding the wall. And you are to be their king, according to these reports.

Nehemiah 6:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NEHEMIAH 6

Sanballat and his brethren, hearing the wall was finished, sent to Nehemiah, to have a meeting with him at a place named, which he refused, Ne 6:1,2, then they sent him a terrifying letter, suggesting that he, and the Jews with him, would be treated as rebels, since their intention, as reported, was to make him king, which letter he regarded not, Ne 6:3-9, then they employed some that pretended to be prophets to advise him to flee to the temple for safety, which he rejected, Ne 6:10-14 and so the work went on and was finished, though there was a secret correspondence carried on between their enemies and some false brethren among themselves, Ne 6:15-19.

Cross References 3

Footnotes 3

  • [a]. Another reading is, one of "the villages"
  • [b]. Lit "do evil to me"
  • [c]. In v 1 and elsewhere, "Geshem"
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