Then said I unto them
The priests and princes of the Jews:
you see the distress that we are in;
lie open to our enemies, and exposed to their insults:
how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burnt with fire,
( Nehemiah 1:3 ) ( Nehemiah 2:3 Nehemiah 2:13 ) ,
come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem that we be no more a
reproach;
to their neighbours about them, who scoffed at them as a defenceless people and frequently came in upon them, and spoiled and plundered them of their goods and substance.