Nehemiah 4:8

8 All of them together plotted to come and fight against Yerushalayim and thus throw us into confusion.

Nehemiah 4:8 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 4:8

And conspired all of them together
All the above men and people entered into a confederacy and combination:

to come and to fight against Jerusalem;
to bring an army with them, and by force cause the Jews to desist; the Jews ^F5 pretend they came to war, and brought with them an army of 180,000 men, which is not probable:

and to hinder it;
the building of the walls of it; or "to make a wandering for him" ^F6; for Nehemiah, or the people, or both, to, cause them to stray from their work, to frighten them from it, that they might become like men at their wits end, not knowing what to do, where to turn themselves, or what course to steer, but to wander about as persons out of their senses; so Aben Ezra. De Dieu joins this clause to the next verse, to cause everyone of them to wander, we prayed

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 Pirke Eliezer, c. 38.
F6 (hewt wl twvel) "ad faciendum ei errorem", Montanus; "ei aberrationem", Genevenses; "vagationem et palationem", alii apud De Dieu.

Nehemiah 4:8 In-Context

6 So we kept building the wall, which was soon joined together and completed to half its height all the way around; because the people worked with a will.

7 But when Sanvalat, Toviyah, the Arabs, the 'Amonim and the Ashdodim heard that the repairs on the walls of Yerushalayim were going forward, and the breaks were being filled in, they became very angry.

8 All of them together plotted to come and fight against Yerushalayim and thus throw us into confusion.

9 However, we prayed to our God and, because of them, organized a watch against them day and night.

10 Y'hudah was saying, "The strength of the people who carry loads away is starting to fail, and there is so much rubble that we can't build the wall."