Nehemiah 4:2

2 He said in the presence of his associates and of the army of Samaria, "What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore things? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish it in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish—and burned ones at that?"

Nehemiah 4:2 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 4:2

And he spake before his brethren
Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, and perhaps some other governors of the king of Persia in those parts:

and before the army of Samaria:
which, and the inhabitants of it, were implacable enemies of the Jews:

and said, what do these feeble Jews?
what do they pretend to do, or what can they do?

will they fortify themselves?
by building a wall about their city; can they think they shall ever be able to do this, or that it will be allowed?

will they sacrifice?
meaning not their daily sacrifice, as Jarchi, that they had done a long time, but for the dedication of their building, as Aben Ezra:

will they make an end in a day?
they seem to be in as great a hurry and haste as if they meant it; and indeed, unless they can do it very quickly, they never will: they will soon be stopped:

will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are
burnt?
where will they find materials? do they imagine that they can make burnt stones firm and strong again, or harden the dust and rubbish into stones, or make that, which is as if dead, alive? to do this is the same as to revive a dead man, and they may as well think of doing the one as the other; burnt stones being reckoned as dead, as Eben Ezra observes.

Nehemiah 4:2 In-Context

1 Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he mocked the Jews.

2 He said in the presence of his associates and of the army of Samaria, "What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore things? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish it in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish—and burned ones at that?"

3 Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, "That stone wall they are building—any fox going up on it would break it down!"

4 Hear, O our God, for we are despised; turn their taunt back on their own heads, and give them over as plunder in a land of captivity.

5 Do not cover their guilt, and do not let their sin be blotted out from your sight; for they have hurled insults in the face of the builders.