Nehemiah 4:8

8 They put their heads together and decided to fight against Jerusalem and create as much trouble as they could.

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 We kept at it, repairing and rebuilding the wall. The whole wall was soon joined together and halfway to its intended height because the people had a heart for the work.

7 When Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the repairs of the walls of Jerusalem were going so well - that the breaks in the wall were being fixed - they were absolutely furious.

8 They put their heads together and decided to fight against Jerusalem and create as much trouble as they could.

9 We countered with prayer to our God and set a round-the-clock guard against them.

10 But soon word was going around in Judah, The builders are pooped, the rubbish piles up; We're in over our heads, we can't build this wall.