7 But when it came to the ears of Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites, that the building of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and the broken places were being made good, they were full of wrath;
And the dragon was angry with the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her seed, who keep the orders of God, and the witness of Jesus:
But so that it may not go farther among the people, let us put them in fear of punishment if they say anything in future in this name. And they sent for them, and gave them orders not to make statements or give teaching in the name of Jesus.
Now, Sanballat, hearing that we were building the wall, was very angry, and in his wrath made sport of the Jews.
And Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, hearing of it, were greatly troubled because a man had come to the help of the children of Israel.
Be glad then, O heavens, and you who are in them. But there is trouble for the earth and the sea: because the Evil One has come down to you, being very angry, having the knowledge that he has but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was forced down to the earth, he made cruel attacks on the woman who gave birth to the male child.
But when these words came to their ears, they were cut to the heart, and had a mind to put them to death.
Ashkelon will see it with fear, and Gaza, bent with pain; and Ekron, for her hope will be shamed: and the king will be cut off from Gaza, and Ashkelon will be unpeopled. And a mixed people will be living in Ashdod, and I will have the pride of the Philistines cut off.
Give out the news in the great houses of Assyria and in the land of Egypt, and say, Come together on the mountains of Samaria, and see what great outcries are there, and what cruel acts are done in it.
Him who is seated in power I will have cut off from Ashdod, and him in whose hand is the rod from Ashkelon; and my hand will be turned against Ekron, and the rest of the Philistines will come to destruction, says the Lord God.
And say to the children of Ammon, Give ear to the word of the Lord; this is what the Lord has said: Because you said, Aha! against my holy place when it was made unclean, and against the land of Israel when it was made waste, and against the people of Judah when they were taken away as prisoners; For this cause I will give you up to the children of the east for their heritage, and they will put their tent-circles in you and make their houses in you; they will take your fruit for their food and your milk for their drink. And I will make Rabbah a place for housing camels, and the children of Ammon a resting-place for flocks: and you will be certain that I am the Lord. For the Lord has said, Because you have made sounds of joy with your hands, stamping your feet, and have been glad, putting shame with all your soul on the land of Israel; For this cause my hand has been stretched out against you, and I will give up your goods to be taken by the nations; I will have you cut off from the peoples and will put an end to you among the countries: I will give you up to destruction; and you will be certain that I am the Lord.
And all the mixed people and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon and Gaza and Ekron and the rest of Ashdod;
And there will be war between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed: by him will your head be crushed and by you his foot will be wounded.
This is to give the king word that we went into the land of Judah, to the house of the great God, which is made of great stones, and has its walls supported with wood, and the work is going on with industry, and they are doing it well.
Then the people of the land made the hands of the people of Judah feeble, troubling them with fear in their building; And they gave payment to men who made designs against them and kept them from effecting their purpose, all through the time of Cyrus, king of Persia, till Darius became king. And in the time of Ahasuerus, when he first became king, they put on record a statement against the people of Judah and Jerusalem. And in the time of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his friends, sent a letter to Artaxerxes, king of Persia, writing it in the Aramaean writing and language. Rehum, the chief ruler, and Shimshai the scribe, sent a letter against Jerusalem, to Artaxerxes the king; The letter was sent by Rehum, the chief ruler, and Shimshai the scribe and their friends; the Dinaites and the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Shushanchites, the Dehaites, the Elamites, And the rest of the nations which the great and noble Osnappar took over and put in Samaria and the rest of the country over the river: This is a copy of the letter which they sent to Artaxerxes the king: Your servants living across the river send these words: We give news to the king that the Jews who came from you have come to us at Jerusalem; they are building up again that uncontrolled and evil town; the walls are complete and they are joining up the bases. The king may be certain that when the building of this town and its walls is complete, they will give no tax or payment in goods or forced payments, and in the end it will be a cause of loss to the kings. Now because we are responsible to the king, and it is not right for us to see the king's honour damaged, we have sent to give the king word of these things, So that search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers: and you will see in the book of the records that this town has been uncontrolled, and a cause of trouble to kings and countries, and that there were outbursts against authority there in the past: for which reason the town was made waste. We give you word, that if the building of this town and its walls is made complete, there will be an end of your power in the country across the river.
He went out and made war against the Philistines, pulling down the walls of Gath and Jabneh and Ashdod, and building towns in the country round Ashdod and among the Philistines. And God gave him help against the Philistines, and against the Arabians living in Gur-baal, and against the Meunim. The Ammonites gave offerings to Uzziah: and news of him went out as far as the limit of Egypt; for he became very great in power.
Now after this, the children of Moab and the children of Ammon, and with them some of the Meunim, made war against Jehoshaphat.
And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldaeans and of the Edomites and of the Moabites and of the children of Ammon; sending them against Judah for its destruction, as he had said by his servants the prophets.
Now after this, death came to the king of the children of Ammon, and Hanun, his son, became king in his place. And David said, I will be a friend to Hanun, the son of Nahash, as his father was a friend to me. So David sent his servants, to give him words of comfort on account of his father. And David's servants came into the land of the children of Ammon. But the chiefs of the children of Ammon said to Hanun their lord, Does it seem to you that David is honouring your father by sending comforters to you? has he not sent his servants to go through the town and make secret observation of it, and overcome it? So Hanun took David's servants, and after cutting off half the hair on their chins, and cutting off the skirts of their robes up to the middle, he sent them away. When David had news of it, he sent men out with the purpose of meeting them on their way, for the men were greatly shamed: and the king said, Go to Jericho till your hair is long again, and then come back.
And Nahash the Ammonite said to them, I will make an agreement with you on this condition, that all your right eyes are put out; so that I may make it a cause of shame to all Israel.
Now the Philistines, having taken the ark of God, took it with them from Eben-ezer to Ashdod. They took the ark of God into the house of Dagon and put it by the side of Dagon.
Then Jephthah sent men to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What have you against me that you have come to make war against my land? And the king of the children of Ammon said to the men sent by Jephthah, Because Israel, when he came up out of Egypt, took away my land, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok and as far as Jordan: so now, give me back those lands quietly. And Jephthah sent again to the king of the children of Ammon, And said to him, This is the word of Jephthah: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the children of Ammon; But when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the waste land to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh; Then Israel sent men to the king of Edom saying, Let me now go through your land; but the king of Edom did not give ear to them. And in the same way he sent to the king of Moab, but he would not; so Israel went on living in Kadesh. Then he went on through the waste land and round the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and put up their tents on the other side of the Arnon; they did not come inside the limit of Moab, for the Arnon was the limit of Moab. And Israel sent men to Sihon, king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, Let me now go through your land to my place. But Sihon would not give way and let Israel go through his land; and Sihon got together all his people, and put his army in position in Jahaz, and made war on Israel. And the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hands of Israel, and they overcame them; so all the land of the Amorites, the people of that land, became Israel's. All the limit of the Amorites was theirs, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok and from the waste land even to Jordan. So now the Lord, the God of Israel, has taken away their land from the Amorites and given it to his people Israel; are you then to have it? Do you not keep the lands of those whom Chemosh your god sends out from before you? So we will keep all the lands of those whom the Lord our God sends out from before us. What! are you any better than Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever take up a cause against Israel or make war against them? While Israel was living in Heshbon and its daughter-towns and in Aroer and its daughter-towns and in all the towns which are by the side of the Arnon, for three hundred years, why did you not get them back at that time? So I have done no wrong against you, but you are doing wrong to me in fighting against me: may the Lord, who is Judge this day, be judge between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon. The king of the children of Ammon, however, did not give ear to the words which Jephthah sent to him. Then the spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah, and he went through Gilead and Manasseh, and came to Mizpeh of Gilead; and from Mizpeh of Gilead he went over to the children of Ammon. And Jephthah took an oath to the Lord, and said, If you will give the children of Ammon into my hands, Then whoever comes out from the door of my house, meeting me when I come back in peace from the children of Ammon, will be the Lord's and I will give him as a burned offering. So Jephthah went over to the children of Ammon to make war on them; and the Lord gave them into his hands. And he made an attack on them from Aroer all the way to Minnith, overrunning twenty towns, as far as Abel-cheramim, and put great numbers to the sword. So the children of Ammon were crushed before the children of Israel. Then Jephthah came back to his house in Mizpah, and his daughter came out, meeting him on his way with music and with dances; she was his only child; he had no other sons or daughters. And when he saw her he was overcome with grief, and said, Ah! my daughter! I am crushed with sorrow, and it is you who are the chief cause of my trouble; for I have made an oath to the Lord and I may not take it back. And she said to him, My father, you have made an oath to the Lord; do then to me whatever you have said; for the Lord has sent a full reward on your haters, on the children of Ammon. Then she said to her father, Only do this for me: let me have two months to go away into the mountains with my friends, weeping for my sad fate. And he said, Go then. So he sent her away for two months; and she went with her friends to the mountains, weeping for her sad fate. And at the end of two months she went back to her father, who did with her as he had said in his oath: and she had never been touched by a man. So it became a rule in Israel, For the women to go year by year sorrowing for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in every year.
And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he gave them up into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the children of Ammon. And that year the children of Israel were crushed under their yoke; for eighteen years all the children of Israel on the other side of Jordan, in the land of the Amorites which is in Gilead, were cruelly crushed down. And the children of Ammon went over Jordan, to make war against Judah and Benjamin and the house of Ephraim; and Israel was in great trouble. Then the children of Israel, crying out to the Lord, said, Great is our sin against you, for we have given up our God and have been servants to the Baals. And the Lord said to the children of Israel, Were not the Egyptians and the Amorites and the children of Ammon and the Philistines And the Zidonians and Amalek and Midian crushing you down, and in answer to your cry did I not give you salvation from their hands? But, for all this, you have given me up and have been servants to other gods: so I will be your saviour no longer. Go, send up your cry for help to the gods of your selection; let them be your saviours in the time of your trouble. And the children of Israel said to the Lord, We are sinners; do to us whatever seems good to you: only give us salvation this day. So they put away the strange gods from among them, and became the Lord's servants; and his soul was angry because of the sorrows of Israel. Then the children of Ammon came together and put their army in position in Gilead. And the children of Israel came together and put their army in position in Mizpah. And the people of Israel said to one another, Who will be the first to make an attack on the children of Ammon? We will make him head over all Gilead.
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Commentary on Nehemiah 4 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 4
Ne 4:1-6. While the Enemies Scoff, Nehemiah Prays to God, and Continues the Work.
1. when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth—The Samaritan faction showed their bitter animosity to the Jews on discovering the systematic design of refortifying Jerusalem. Their opposition was confined at first to scoffs and insults, in heaping which the governors made themselves conspicuous, and circulated all sorts of disparaging reflections that might increase the feelings of hatred and contempt for them in their own party. The weakness of the Jews in respect of wealth and numbers, the absurdity of their purpose apparently to reconstruct the walls and celebrate the feast of dedication in one day, the idea of raising the walls on their old foundations, as well as using the charred and mouldering debris of the ruins as the materials for the restored buildings, and the hope of such a parapet as they could raise being capable of serving as a fortress of defense—these all afforded fertile subjects of hostile ridicule.
3. if a fox go up—The foxes were mentioned because they were known to infest in great numbers the ruined and desolate places in the mount and city of Zion (La 5:18).
4, 5. Hear, O our God; for we are despised—The imprecations invoked here may seem harsh, cruel, and vindictive; but it must be remembered that Nehemiah and his friends regarded those Samaritan leaders as enemies to the cause of God and His people, and therefore as deserving to be visited with heavy judgments. The prayer, therefore, is to be considered as emanating from hearts in which neither hatred, revenge, nor any inferior passion, but a pious and patriotic zeal for the glory of God and the success of His cause, held the ascendant sway.
6. all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof—The whole circuit of the wall had been distributed in sections to various companies of the people, and was completed to the half of the intended height.
Ne 4:7-23. He Sets a Watch.
7-21. 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."