Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Nehemiah 4:17

Clarke's Commentary

Verse 17. With one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. — That is, he had his arms at hand, and was as fully prepared to fight as to work. So OVID, Epist. xi., Canace Macario, ver. 1: -

Si qua tamen caecis errabunt scripta lituris,

Oblitus a dominae caede libellus erit:

Dextra tenet calamum; strictum tenet altera ferrum:

Et jacet in gremio charta soluta meo.

If streaming blood my fatal letter stain,

Imagine, ere you read, the writer slain.

One hand the sword, and one the pen employs,

And in my lap the ready paper lies. DRYDEN.

By this mode of speech Canace does not intimate to her brother Macarius, that she actually held the sword in one hand while she held the pen in the other, but that she had it ready to slay herself as soon as she had written the epistle.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Early opposition (4:1-23)

Since the Jews had the Persian king’s approval for their building program, their opponents, being also under the government of Persia, hesitated to attack Jerusalem openly. However, they were still able to mock and ridicule, hoping that this would dishearten the people from building (4:1-5).
But the Jews were not easily discouraged and the work continued (6). The enemies therefore planned to create confusion and uncertainty among the Jews by carrying out surprise terrorist attacks on the city. On hearing of this, the Jews increased their prayer and strengthened their defences (7-9).
Jews from outlying areas informed Nehemiah of the enemies’ movements (10-12), but Nehemiah still took no risks. He armed all the workers and divided them into two shifts, one working while the other stood guard. He also made arrangements for battle in case of a sudden attack (13-21). Country people who worked in the city were asked to sleep there rather than return home, in order to provide added protection at night (22-23).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

IN SPITE OF THREATENING ENEMIES THE WORK WENT ON

"And it came to pass when our enemies heard that it was known to us, and God brought their counsel to naught, that we returned all of us to the wall every one unto his work. And it came to pass from that time forth, that half of my servants wrought in the work, and half of them held the spears, and the shields, and the bows, and the coats of mail; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah. They that builded the wall and they that bare burdens laded themselves; every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with his other held his weapon; and the builders every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me. And I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall, one from another: in what place soever ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us; our God will fight for us."

"God brought their counsel to naught" This simply means that Sanballat, hearing and observing Nehemiah's preparations and determination to fight, backed down from his ugly threats. In his mind, no doubt, was the knowledge that the king of Persia was also behind Nehemiah's fortifying Jerusalem. "That no conflict came about shows that when the enemy approached, and saw from a distance, the whole people awaiting them in perfect order with all equipment and weapons at the ready, they simply lost heart and turned back."The Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., p. 42.

"Half of my servants wrought in the work" These are generally understood to have been "official servants that pertained to Nehemiah";Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 438. but there remains the possibility that the military escort provided by the king of Persia was yet with Nehemiah, there having been no report of its return to Persia. Therefore there is the possibility that these were meant.

"Every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other held his weapon" This expression is obviously somewhat figurative, as explained by the next clause, "Everyone had his sword girded by his side, and so builded." The great London preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon published a paper called Sword and Trowel, named after what is written here.

"The coats of mail" "Coats of mail were common in Assyria from the 9th century B.C., and even earlier in Egypt; they were made of thin leaves of bronze or iron sewed upon leather or linen and overlapping one another."F. C. Cook, Barnes' Commentary Series, op. cit., p. 465.

"The sound of the trumpet" "When an attack was made, the trumpet sounded at that point; all the workers rallied, and the enemy was either frightened or driven away. Even those who lived beyond the city came into Jerusalem at night to sleep."George DeHoff's Commentary, op. cit., p. 292.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 4

Now it came to pass, when [this antagonist] Sanballat [and Tobiah] learned that they had started building the wall, they were very angry, and they began to mock the Jews ( Nehemiah 4:1 ).

And they gathered together the army of the Samaritans who, of course, were already antagonistic toward the Jews. They sought to hinder the work through mockery.

What are these feeble Jews trying to do? Tobiah said, If a fox would go up against that wall they're building, he could knock it over ( Nehemiah 4:2-3 ).

It is interesting how that Satan so often uses mockery in order to discourage the work of God. It's one of the tools that Satan often uses against us. You've probably been subjected to mockery. "Oh, don't tell me you believe those fairy tale kind of things." And mockery is often used; ridicule is used as a tool to discourage the work of God. And unfortunately, many times it works. We are sort of cowed by the ridicule of others. We don't like to be ridiculed. We don't like to be mocked. And mockery is oftentimes a tool used to discourage a person in the work of God.

Now Nehemiah met the challenge of their mockery with prayer.

Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own heads, and give them as a prey of captivity ( Nehemiah 4:4 ):

Now Nehemiah answers this attack with prayer. Again, as we pointed out this morning, Nehemiah, as all of the leaders of the Old Testament were men of prayer, praying for guidance when the king says, "Well, why are you so sad? What would you want me to do?" "Oh God, you know, give me favor," and then he lays it out to the king. And always there acknowledging God and everything.

Now here comes this ridicule and he just offers this prayer unto the Lord that God will turn it upon their own head. It's sort of like some of the psalms of David where he prays not for God to bless his enemies, but for God to break their teeth in their mouth. And I sort of like David. I can identify with him easier than I can sometimes with the words of Christ where He said, "Love your enemies." I find that difficult. "Do good unto those who despitefully use you" ( Matthew 5:44 ). That's hard. But where David says, "Lord, let the angel of the Lord pursue them and break their teeth in their mouth and smash their noses and all, Lord." I can get into that. So here is Nehemiah saying, "Lord, turn it on their own heads. Turn it back to them, Lord."

And so he's saying:

Don't cover their iniquity, don't blot out their sin ( Nehemiah 4:5 ):

Judge them, Lord; send them to hell. They said,

So we built the wall; and all of the wall was joined together: for the people had a mind to work ( Nehemiah 4:6 ).

So when Sanballat and Tobiah saw that the work was progressing so well, they now decided on a more direct assault against this building project. And they began to attack with commando type of rage, harassing the builders and those that were seeking to do the work, because they began to fill in the breaches and the wall began to go up and it was obvious that these fellows were intent on what they were doing. And so they sought to hinder the building up by these attacks, and again Nehemiah answered this through prayer.

Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and we set the watch against them day and night, because of these attacks ( Nehemiah 4:9 ).

"Now we offered our prayer unto God and we set our watch." The prayer was not used in lieu of responsible actions. Nor should prayer ever be used in lieu of responsible actions. God expects us to act responsibly. Some people use prayer as an excuse for their laziness. It should never be. "We offered our prayer unto God and we set the watch against the enemy." God does expect us to do what is wise and what is prudent though all the while we are trusting in Him. We know that, "If the Lord doesn't watch the city, the watchman waketh but in vain" ( Psalms 127:1 ). But the watchman still wakes up.

We don't say, "Lord, watch the city," and then everybody just go to sleep. But the watchman is still there. But if the Lord isn't watching, he's waking up and he's there in vain. We realize that it is necessary that God watch the city, but we also realize it's necessary that we take the prudent actions that are required of us. So, "We offered our prayer unto our God and we set our watch day and night."

So then there was further problems that developed, because

Those of Judah said, The strength of the bearers of the burdens are decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall ( Nehemiah 4:10 ).

They just began to get discouraged. And what a tool discouragement is in the hand of the enemy as he seeks to discourage us from the work of the Lord. The enemy seems to have a whole bag of tricks. He'll try to stop you by ridicule. If that doesn't work, he'll assault you. If that doesn't work, then he'll try to make you discouraged. And just so many things the enemy uses to keep you from doing the work of God. And it's tragic when a person allows discouragement to stop him or to hinder him from that work and calling of God upon his life.

And there are always many people with words of discouragement for anything you might seek to do for the Lord. "Oh, don't you realize people have tried to do that before? Oh, we tried that ten years ago and it was really a flop, you know." Here you're all inspired. You feel like doing something for the Lord. There's always someone who'd pour cold water on your ideas to discourage you. And many times people, unfortunately, allow discouragement to keep them from the word of God.

And so he said in encouragement to them, they were saying, "Oh, you know, our strength is... we're tired and these harassing attacks and all." And he said, "Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord." And remembering the Lord is always the cure for fear. David said, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me" ( Psalms 23:4 ). Fear always ensues when I forget the Lord.

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me?" ( Psalms 42:5 ) Because I've forgotten that God is on the throne. I have forgotten that the Lord has said, "I will never leave you or forsake you" ( Hebrews 13:5 ). I have forgotten the power of the Lord and the presence of the Lord. And thus, fear gripped my heart and discouragement because I have forgotten the Lord. Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord. The Lord is with you. The Lord will give you strength. You need not to fear.

and so God put the counsel of their enemies to nought, and they returned again to the building of the wall, every man to his work. So it came to pass from that time forth, that half of the fellows would work, and half would stand watching with their spears ready for the attack ( Nehemiah 4:15-16 ).

And Nehemiah stood with them, and next to Nehemiah was the fellow with the trumpet. And whenever attack would come, the guy would go and blow the trumpet in that place and everybody would drop their trowel. And they work with the trowel with one hand and a sword in the other. And they take off with the swords to drive off the enemy.

Now it is interesting that in Daniel's prophecy concerning the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of the Messiah the Prince, he there declared, "And the wall shall be built again in troublous times" ( Daniel 9:25 ). And surely the building of the wall was fraught with all kinds of trouble as the enemies sought to harass them and to hinder them in their work. Working with the trowel in one hand, the spear in the other. Half working while half watched. And they worked from sun up to sun down till the stars were out at night. And they didn't even bother... they were so tired they just lay down with their clothes on. They didn't even bother to remove their clothes except that they would wash them once in a while. But they just were staying right on the task. And the builders, every one of them, had his sword girded by his side, waiting for the trumpet to sound, dropping the trowel, going to battle. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

2. The opposition to the workers ch. 4

Any attempt to fulfill God’s desires will almost certainly draw opposition from God’s enemies.

"The real test of a leader is how he or she faces crises and reacts to opposition. This chapter recounts several forms of opposition and how Nehemiah confronted them." [Note: Breneman, p. 193.]

The Jews’ enemies used ridicule (Nehemiah 4:1-6), as well as armed resistance (Nehemiah 4:8), to oppose the work. A better translation of the Hebrew word rendered "wealthy" (Nehemiah 4:2) is "army."

"The Hebrew root ’mll is occasionally used in the OT to denote the fading or withering of a plant (Isaiah 16:8; Isaiah 24:7; etc.). It is also used of people without any hope (Isaiah 19:8; Hosea 4:3). It is employed here in Nehemiah [translated "feeble," Nehemiah 4:2, NASB, NIV] to ridicule the Jews." [Note: Fensham, p. 180.]

Nehemiah based his imprecatory prayer (Nehemiah 4:4-5) on God’s promise that He would bless those who blessed Abraham’s descendants, and curse those who cursed them (Genesis 12:1-3).

"God’s people should always regard prayer not as a last resort but as our primary weapon against opposition." [Note: Breneman, p. 194.]

We should probably understand Nehemiah’s request that God would not forgive their sin (Nehemiah 4:5) as referring to their sin of opposing the builders, not all their sins. John Bright considered Nehemiah "not . . . an overly modest man." [Note: Bright, p. 373.] This is a minority opinion.

"The iniquities and sins were committed by sneering at the work God had commanded. The prayer was thus not vindictive because the Jews were insulted, but because God’s work was ridiculed." [Note: Fensham, p. 182.]

"To understand such violent language, we need to appreciate fully the sense of the divine purpose at work, so that opposition is not seen in human terms but as opposition to God himself." [Note: Peter Ackroyd, I and II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, pp. 277-78.]

Furthermore, God had already pronounced judgment on Israel’s enemies, so Nehemiah was praying according to God’s will that He would deliver Jerusalem from her enemies (Joshua 1:5). Finally, Nehemiah was asking God to take vengeance, which is His work, not the work of Nehemiah or other believers (cf. Deuteronomy 32:35; Romans 12:19). [Note: Gene A. Getz, "Nehemiah," in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, p. 682.]

Nehemiah and the people’s responses to opposition-prayer, continued work, and self-defense (Nehemiah 4:9)-are the proper ones whenever an enemy seeks to stop the building of what God has commanded (e.g., His church, cf. Matthew 16:18).

With the added opposition of the Ashdodites, the residents of a formerly Philistine town (Nehemiah 4:7), the Jews’ enemies surrounded them on all sides: north, south, east, and west. Josephus wrote, "They slew many of the Jews." [Note: Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 11:5:8.] The workers became discouraged by their own fatigue, the immensity of their task, and the threats of their enemies (Nehemiah 4:10-12). Nehemiah responded by increasing security, focusing their attention again on God, and reminding them of their duty to protect their families and property (Nehemiah 4:13-14). Oliver Cromwell similarly counseled, "Trust in God and keep your [gun]powder dry." C. H. Spurgeon advised his students, "Pray as if everything depended on God, then preach as if everything depended on you." [Note: Quoted by J. G. McConville, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, p. 95.] His approach proved effective (Nehemiah 4:15-16). The Jews were willing to make temporary sacrifices and endure some discomfort to finish the work God had given them to do (Nehemiah 4:17-23). In this they are models for all of us who serve God.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Ver. 17 They which builded on the wall,.... That laid the mortar and stones upon it, and timber where it was necessary:

and they that bore burdens; that carried the mortar, stones, and timber to the builders, and served them:

with those that laded; which prepared the above for them, and laid them on their shoulders:

everyone with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon; which is not to be understood strictly and literally, for without both hands they could not well perform either of the above works; but proverbially, signifying that they were intent on both working and fighting, and were ready and prepared to do the latter, as well as the former, having weapons lying by them, or girt about them, as is explained in the following verse.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      16 And it came to pass from that time forth, that the half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah.   17 They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.   18 For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me.   19 And I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall, one far from another.   20 In what place therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us: our God shall fight for us.   21 So we laboured in the work: and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared.   22 Likewise at the same time said I unto the people, Let every one with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, that in the night they may be a guard to us, and labour on the day.   23 So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard which followed me, none of us put off our clothes, saving that every one put them off for washing.

      When the builders had so far reason to think the design of the enemies broken as to return to their work, yet they were not so secure as to lay down their arms, knowing how restless and unwearied they were in their attempts, and that, if one design failed, they would be hatching another. Thus must we watch always against our spiritual enemies, and not expect that our warfare will be accomplished till our work is. See what course Nehemiah took, that the people might hold themselves in a readiness, in case there should be an attack. 1. While one half were at work, the other half were under their arms, holding spears, and shields, and bows, not only for themselves but for the labourers too, who would immediately quit their work, and betake themselves to their weapons, upon the first alarm, Nehemiah 4:16; Nehemiah 4:16. It is probable that they changed services at stated hours, which would relieve the fatigue of both, and particularly would be an ease to the bearers of burdens, whose strength had decayed (Nehemiah 4:10; Nehemiah 4:10); while they held the weapons, they were eased and yet not idle. Thus dividing their time between the trowels and the spears, they are said to work with one hand and hold their weapons with the other (Nehemiah 4:17; Nehemiah 4:17), which cannot be understood literally, for the work would require both hands; but it intimates that they were equally employed in both. Thus must we work out our salvation with the weapons of our warfare in our hand; for in every duty we must expect to meet with opposition from our spiritual enemies, against whom we must still be fighting the good fight of faith. 2. Every builder had a sword by his side (Nehemiah 4:18; Nehemiah 4:18), which he could carry without hindering his labour. The word of God is the sword of the Spirit, which we ought to have always at hand and never to seek, both in our labours and in our conflicts as Christians. 3. Care was taken both to get and give early notice of the approach of the enemy, in case they should endeavour to surprise them. Nehemiah kept a trumpeter always by him to sound an alarm, upon the first intimation of danger. The work was large, and the builders were dispersed; for in all parts of the wall they were labouring at the same time. Nehemiah continually walked round to oversee the work and encourage the workmen, and so would have speedy intelligence if the enemy made an attack, of which, by sound of trumpet, he would soon give notice to all, and they must immediately repair to him with a full assurance that their God would fight for them,Nehemiah 4:18-20; Nehemiah 4:18-20. When they acted as workmen, it was requisite they should be dispersed wherever there was work to do; but when as soldiers it was requisite they should come into close order, and be found in a body. Thus should the labourers in Christ's building be ready to unite against a common foe. 4. The inhabitants of the villages were ordered to lodge within Jerusalem, with their servants, not only that they might be the nearer to their work in the morning, but that they might be ready to help in case of an attack in the night, Nehemiah 4:22; Nehemiah 4:22. The strength of a city lies more in its hands than in its walls; secure them, and God's blessing upon them, and be secure. 5. Nehemiah himself, and all his men, kept closely to their business. The spears were held up, with the sight of them to terrify the enemy, not only from sun to sun, but from twilight to twilight every day, Nehemiah 4:21; Nehemiah 4:21. Thus ought we to be always upon our guard against our spiritual enemies, not only (as here) while it is light, but when it is dark, for they are the rulers of the darkness of this world. Nay, so very intent was Nehemiah upon his work, and so fast did he hold his servants to it, that while the heat of the business lasted neither he himself nor his attendants went into bed, but every night lay and slept in their clothes (Nehemiah 4:23; Nehemiah 4:23), except that they shifted them now and then, either for cleanliness or in a case of ceremonial pollution. It was a sign that their heart was upon their work when they could not find time to dress and undress, but resolved they would be at all times ready for service. Good work is likely to go on successfully when those that labour in it thus make a business of it.