Nehemiah 4:7 - Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

Nehemiah 4:7

5 ^aDo not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before You; for they have provoked You to anger before the builders.

6 So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

7 Now it happened, ^awhen Sanballat, Tobiah, ^bthe Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and the¹ gaps were beginning to be closed, that they became very angry,

8 and all of them ^aconspired together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion.

9 Nevertheless ^awe made our prayer to our God, and because of them we set a watch against them day and night.

10 Then Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is failing, and there is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall.”

Commentaries:

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

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Nehemiah 4:7-21

HE SETS A WATCH. (Neh. 4:7-23)

But . . . when Sanballat . . . heard that the walls . . . were made up, and . . . the breaches . . . stopped—The rapid progress of the fortifications, despite all their predictions to the contrary, goaded the Samaritans to frenzy. So they, dreading danger from the growing greatness of the Jews, formed a conspiracy to surprise them, demolish their works, and disperse or intimidate the builders. The plot being discovered, Nehemiah adopted the most energetic measures for ensuring the common safety, as well as the uninterrupted building of the walls. Hitherto the governor, for the sake of despatch, had set all his attendants and guards on the work—now half of them were withdrawn to be constantly in arms. The workmen labored with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other; and as, in so large a circuit, they were far removed from each other, Nehemiah (who was night and day on the spot, and, by his pious exhortations and example, animated the minds of his people) kept a trumpeter by his side, so that, on any intelligence of a surprise being brought to him, an alarm might be immediately sounded, and assistance rendered to the most distant detachment of their brethren. By these vigilant precautions, the counsels of the enemy were defeated, and the work was carried on apace. God, when He has important public work to do, never fails to raise up instruments for accomplishing it, and in the person of Nehemiah, who, to great natural acuteness and energy added fervent piety and heroic devotion, He provided a leader, whose high qualities fitted him for the demands of the crisis. Nehemiah's vigilance anticipated every difficulty, his prudent measures defeated every obstruction, and with astonishing rapidity this Jerusalem was made again "a city fortified."

**Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Nehemiah 4:7:**

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