Nehemiah 6:1-9

Sanballat’s Conspiracy

1 When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left—though to that time I had not yet installed the doors in the gates—

2 Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages ^[a] on the plain ^[b] of Ono.” But they were planning to harm me.

3 So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it to go down to you?”

4 Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave the same reply.

5 The fifth time, Sanballat sent me this same message by his young servant, who had in his hand an unsealed letter

6 that read: “It is reported among the nations—and Geshem ^[c] agrees—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and this is why you are building the wall. According to these reports, you are to become their king,

7 and you have even appointed prophets in Jerusalem to proclaim on your behalf: ‘There is a king in Judah.’ Soon these rumors will reach the ears of the king. So come, let us confer together.”

8 Then I sent him this reply: “There is nothing to these rumors you are spreading; you are inventing them in your own mind.”

9 For they were all trying to frighten us, saying, “Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will never be finished.” But now, my God, ^[d] strengthen my hands.

Nehemiah 6:1-9 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.

Footnotes

• [a] Or in Kephirim
• [b] Or in the valley
• [c] Hebrew Gashmu, a variant of Geshem; see verse 1.
• [d] Hebrew But now; for clarity, my God has been included.