Nechemyah 6:2

2 That Sanvalat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they were choshevim (the ones scheming) to do me ra’ah (harm).

Nechemyah 6:2 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 6:2

Then Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me
Messengers:

saying, come, let us meet together in some one of the villages;
in Cephirim, which Jarchi takes to be the name of a place, perhaps the same with Cephirah, a city in the tribe of Benjamin, ( Joshua 18:26 )

in the plain of Ono;
which was in the same tribe, see ( 1 Chronicles 8:12 ) , they might pretend a friendly meeting, to accommodate differences between them, or to converse together about the general interest of the king of Persia in those parts:

but they thought to do me mischief;
to kill him, or at least to confine him; this he either conjectured from their general character and behaviour, or he had intelligence of their design.

Nechemyah 6:2 In-Context

1 Now it came to pass when Sanvalat, and Toviyah, and Geshem the Arab, and the rest of oyveinu (our enemies), heard that I had rebuilt HaChomah, and that there was no peretz (gap) left therein (though at that time I had not set up the dalatot in the she’arim),

2 That Sanvalat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they were choshevim (the ones scheming) to do me ra’ah (harm).

3 And I sent malachim unto them, saying, I am doing a melachah gedolah, so that I cannot come down. Why should the melachah cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?

4 Yet they sent unto me this message arbah pe’amim; and I answered them after the same manner.

5 Then sent Sanvalat his aid unto me in like manner the fifth time with an unsealed iggeret in his hand;