Nehemiah 4:8

8 All of them ¹conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause a disturbance in it.

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 built the wall and the whole wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

7 Now when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repair of the walls of Jerusalem went on, and that the breaches began to be closed, they were very angry.

8 All of them conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause a disturbance in it.

9 But we prayed to our God, and because of them we set up a guard against them day and night.

10 Thus in Judah it was said, "The strength of the burden bearers is failing, Yet there is much rubbish; And we ourselves are unable To rebuild the wall."

Cross References

• 1. Psalms 83:3