Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

6:1 With the wall almost complete, Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem, and the rest of our enemies (see 2:10, 19) turn in desperation to trickery, knowing that they cannot overcome the Jews by direct assault.

6:2 Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono. This unknown place is presumably near the town of Ono (see Ezra 2:33), north of Jerusalem, perhaps serving as a kind of neutral ground. Nehemiah sees it as a conspiracy against him, since he knows they want to frustrate his work.

6:3 I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Nehemiah would not divert time and effort from the Lord's work for discussions with his enemies that he knew would be fruitless at best and probably dangerous to him as well.

6:4 Nehemiah follows diplomatic protocol in the exchange of letters. Sanballat was, after all, the governor of Samaria, and relations with him would ultimately be important.

6:5-7 Sanballat's fifth attempt was an open letter (v. 5), its public nature intended to exert extra pressure on Nehemiah, perhaps by creating fear within his own community that his actions could lead to disaster. In the letter, Sanballat takes up the old allegation of rebellion against Persia (see Ezra 4:12-13) and claims to have testimony to it among the nations (Neh. 6:6), i.e., in the surrounding Persian provinces. you wish to become their king. . . . There is a king in Judah (vv. 6-7). If this charge were true, it would certainly inflame the Persians. And there was truth, of course, in the Jewish expectation of a coming Davidic king, based on prophetic promises (see Isa. 9:6-7; Jer. 23:5-6). A century earlier, Zerubbabel may have excited messianic expectations (see note on Ezra 2:2a). Sanballat portrays himself as loyal to Persia and also as the Jews' friend, offering to defuse the danger posed by these alleged rumors. the (Persian) king will hear (Neh. 6:7). This is, of course, a veiled threat.

6:6 you and the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. . . . you wish to become their king. These are lies and false accusations.

6:8 Nehemiah flatly denies the accusations (vv. 6-7). While he may have held long-term messianic hopes, as many no doubt did, he remained a loyal servant of Artaxerxes. Nehemiah had no aspirations to kingship--nor indeed a claim to it, since there is no reason to think he was of the Davidic line.

6:9 they all wanted to frighten us. Nehemiah sees the real intention of Sanballat's maneuvering and expresses the issue at stake: the work cannot be prevented by the schemes of enemies--that had been settled from the start, because the favor of the king himself had been secured by God's providence. Nehemiah acknowledges this fact by another prayer interjected into his narrative (see 2:4; 4:4-5; cf. note on 5:19).

6:10 Shemaiah is not otherwise known, but may have been a priest. confined to his home. This possible translation of a difficult Hebrew word tries to explain why Nehemiah went to this man's house. Yet Shemaiah was apparently in a position to meet Nehemiah in the temple. It is not clear why he had been confined to his home: perhaps it was meant as a prophetic symbolic act suggesting that Jerusalem was surrounded by enemies. within the temple . . . for they are coming to kill you. This "warning" suggests a plot by Sanballat and other enemies. Shemaiah proposes that Nehemiah simply take refuge in the temple.

6:11 Nehemiah responds that such an act would be cowardly.

6:12 God had not sent him. Shemaiah was pretending to speak with prophetic authority, but Nehemiah sees that his prophecy was false.

6:13 To be afraid would be in this case the opposite of having faith, and hence sin (see Deut. 1:28-33, also notes on Ezra 3:3; Neh. 4:14). This sort of unbelief would enable his enemies to taunt Nehemiah (see 5:9) and thus undermine his authority.

6:14 Nehemiah thinks again of prayer, calling on God to remember those who had tried to turn him (and therefore also his fellow Jews) from faith (cf. Matt. 18:6). This "remember" is typical of Nehemiah's prayers (Neh. 1:8; see note on 5:19), which always seek God's justice, whether for blessing or for judgment. Tobiah is placed first again here, but the circle of Nehemiah's enemies, including the prophetess Noadiah and other prophets, must have been considerable. Perhaps there were many incidents such as the one recorded here.

6:15-16 Elul was the sixth month (August-September), so it has been less than six months since Nehemiah spoke to the king. No doubt the speed of the building work itself contributed to the fear now felt by the enemies. Those enemies among the nations around us surely include Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem, and their peoples (see 4:7). they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. If God had helped the people of Judah so remarkably in this way, the nations feared that this same God would turn Judah into a powerful nation that would be a threat to them.

6:17 The complicity of the nobles of Judah with Tobiah now strongly emerges; it is an alliance based on the marriages of Tobiah, an "Ammonite" (2:10), and his son into families of the Jewish nobility. It is ironic that Tobiah is so highly regarded among the Israelites, in view of the measures Ezra had taken against intermarriage (Ezra 9-10). This perhaps explains Tobiah's hostility to Nehemiah's work, which was seen as being in continuity with Ezra's work.

6:18 bound by oath to him. It is not clear in what way they were bound. But there was clearly a powerful lobby in Jerusalem committed to Tobiah and opposed to Nehemiah.

7:1 Gatekeepers, singers, Levites is a typical grouping of worship officials (see Ezra 2:40-42), so it is surprising to find them in connection with guarding the walls. Yet the guarding of the city was ultimately related to establishing the worship of Yahweh in his temple.

7:2 On Hanani, see 1:2. He and Hananiah (7:2) may possibly replace the "rulers" named in 3:9, 12.

7:3 Caution is still necessary. The guards are appointed from among those who live in the city and thus are most committed to it.

7:4 Apparently the people are relatively few in number. The building of houses has taken second place to reconstructing the walls.