Nehemiah 4:5

5 Cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thy face, because they have mocked thy builders.

Nehemiah 4:5 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 4:5

And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted
out from before thee
Let it not go unpunished, and even let it not be pardoned; which is spoken, not from a private spirit of revenge, but from a public spirit for the glory of God, and his justice; and not as a mere imprecation, but as a prophecy of what would be the case, in like manner as many of David's petitions in the Psalms; and for this there was a good foundation, since God had threatened the Moabites and Ammonites with utter destruction:

for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders;
by despising his people, and mocking at the work the Lord had called them to; and this they did publicly, and on purpose to discourage the workmen.

Nehemiah 4:5 In-Context

3 Tobias also the Ammonite who was by him said: Let them build: if a fox go up, he will leap over their stone wall.

4 Hear thou our God, for we are despised: turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them to be despised in a land of captivity.

5 Cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thy face, because they have mocked thy builders.

6 So we built the wall, and joined it all together unto the half thereof: and the heart of the people was excited to work.

7 And it came to pass, when Sanaballat, and Tobias, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Azotians heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and the breaches began to be closed, that they were exceedingly angry.