Nehemiah 4:1-6
Evangelical Heritage Version
Opposition and Threats to the Building[a]
4 When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, it infuriated him, and he became very angry. He ridiculed the Jews 2 and said in front of his allies[b] and the army of Samaria, “What are those pathetic Jews doing? Will they restore[c] it by themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish in one day? Will they refurbish the stones that came from the piles of rubble that have been burned?”
3 Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him. He said, “Whatever they are building, if even a fox climbed on it, it would break apart the wall made from their stones.”
4 Listen, O our God, because we are an object of contempt. Turn their ridicule back on their own heads. Hand them over as plunder in a land of captivity. 5 Do not cover over their guilt, and may their sin not be blotted out before you, because they have provoked your anger in the presence of the builders.[d]
6 So we built the wall, and the entire wall was completed, up to half its height, because the people were determined to do it.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Nehemiah 4:1 Nehemiah 4:1-6 is 3:33-38 in the Hebrew Bible. Nehemiah 4:7-23 is 4:1-17 in the Hebrew Bible.
- Nehemiah 4:2 Literally brothers
- Nehemiah 4:2 Here the Hebrew word azav, which usually means abandon, seems to mean restore.
- Nehemiah 4:5 -5 Nehemiah frequently interjects prayers into the narration, often without introduction. These prayers are marked by extra indentation.
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