Nehemiah 4:5

5 Don't forgive their iniquity or blot out their sins from your sight. They have thrown insults at the builders!

Nehemiah 4:5 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 4:5

And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted
out from before thee
Let it not go unpunished, and even let it not be pardoned; which is spoken, not from a private spirit of revenge, but from a public spirit for the glory of God, and his justice; and not as a mere imprecation, but as a prophecy of what would be the case, in like manner as many of David's petitions in the Psalms; and for this there was a good foundation, since God had threatened the Moabites and Ammonites with utter destruction:

for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders;
by despising his people, and mocking at the work the Lord had called them to; and this they did publicly, and on purpose to discourage the workmen.

Nehemiah 4:5 In-Context

3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was beside him, added: "If even a fox climbs on whatever they build, their wall of stones will crumble."

4 Listen, God; we are despised! Turn their insults to us back on their heads and make them like plunder in a captive land.

5 Don't forgive their iniquity or blot out their sins from your sight. They have thrown insults at the builders!

6 We continued to build the wall. All of it was joined together, and it reached half of its intended height because the people were eager to work.

7 But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the people of Ashdod heard that the work on the walls was progressing and the gaps were being closed, they were very angry.