Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Nehemiah 6:1

Clarke's Commentary

CHAPTER VI

Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem, insidiously desire a conference

with Nehemiah, which he refuses, 1-4.

They then charge him with the design of rebelling, and causing

himself to be made king, 5-7;

which he denies, and prays to God for support, 8, 9.

A false prophet is hired by Tobiah and Sanballat, to put him in

fear; he discovers the imposture, and defeats their design,

10-13.

He prays to God against them, 14.

The wall is finished in fifty-two days, 15.

He discovers a secret and treasonable correspondence between

Tobiah and some of the Jewish nobles, 16-19.

NOTES ON CHAP. VI

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

The wall completed (6:1-7:73)

With the wall nearing completion, the enemies saw that their only hope lay in getting rid of Nehemiah himself. They tried to draw him out into the country where they could murder him, but Nehemiah was aware of their tricks (6:1-4). They then spread rumours, by means of an open letter, that Nehemiah was planning a revolt against Persia, but their efforts came to nothing (5-9).
The enemies thought of yet another plan. They tried to make Nehemiah act in a way that would ruin his reputation for fearlessness before opponents and reverence for the temple. Again they failed (10-14). Even the spies and traitors whom the enemies had planted in Jerusalem were unable to stop Nehemiah from completing the wall (15-19).
Jerusalem was now surrounded with a solid wall of defence. But as usual Nehemiah took no risks. The city was only thinly populated and special precautions were necessary. In case of a surprise early morning attack, Nehemiah ordered that the city gates remain closed until all the people were awake and about their daily business. In addition he formed a city-wide guard, arranged so that each household supervised an area close to it (7:1-4).

Nehemiah then made a register of all those living in Jerusalem. It was based on lists that went back to the very first group of returned exiles, who had come to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel almost a century earlier (5-73; see notes on Ezra 2:1-70, where the same list is given).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

ONE FINAL EFFORT MADE BY NEHEMIAH'S ENEMIES;
FIVE SUCCESSIVE ATTEMPTS TO GET NEHEMIAH IN THEIR POWER

"Now it came to pass when it was reported to Sanballat and Tobiah, and to Geshem the Arabian, and unto the rest of our enemies, that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein (Though even unto that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), that Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief. And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease whilst I leave it, and come down to you? And they sent unto me four times after this sort, and; I answered them after the same manner. Then sent Sanballat his servant unto me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand, wherein was written, It is reported among the nations, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel; for which cause thou art building the wall: and thou wouldest be their king according to these words. And thou hast appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying, there is a king in Judah: and now shall it be reported unto the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together. Then I sent unto him saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart. For they all would make us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. But thou, O God, strengthen thou my hands."

"The narrative which was broken by the parenthetical Nehemiah 5 is here taken up again."Footnote is not available "The enemies of Judah had found ridicule (Nehemiah 4:1-6) ineffective, and their threatened military attack had not taken place (Nehemiah 4:7-23); and their plan here was to kill Nehemiah, or at least kidnap him."Footnote is not available The spiritual significance of Sanballat's proposal is that Satan is always attempting to induce God's servants to come down unto the plains of Ono, and to take counsel with evil men. Satan's purposes are never otherwise than totally evil. "The plain of Ono was near Lydda, twelve miles north of Jerusalem."Footnote is not available Cundall located it 19 miles north of Jerusalem.Footnote is not available

"With an open letter in his hand" This open letter was not sealed, in order that the escort who carried it might read it and scatter the evil report as widely as possible. The very fact of sending such an open letter to the head of a government was an insult.

"Gashmu" This is the name as it appears in the Masoretic text; but it is believed to be the same as Geshem, as the word is translated in the RSV. He was an important official whose word might carry weight in Persia; and there was also the element of plausibility that such a report might carry with it in Persia."Footnote is not available The whole report, however, was totally false.

"Thou hast appointed prophets to preach of thee" Sanballat here exhibits some knowledge of Hebrew history in which prophets did play a large part in the anointing of Israel's kings, as in the cases of Saul and David. This supports an earlier comment that Sanballat might have been an Ephraimite. However, Sanballat's omission of any reference to Nehemiah as being a descendant of the royal family of David, supports Williamson's argument that, "Nehemiah was not of Davidic descent."Footnote is not available

"Thou feignest them out of thine own heart" Nehemiah's response to this well-planned scheme to allure him into a meeting with Sanballat was merely to send him word that all of his charges were merely a pack of lies which he himself had invented.

"But now, O God, strengthen thou my hands" Here is another of Nehemiah's impromptu prayers, indicating his complete reliance upon the blessing of God in order to accomplish his objectives.

Sanballat and Tobiah had corrupted a priest named Shemaiah, who attempted to get Nehemiah killed, having been hired by Tobiah. That is our next episode.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Upon the gates - Rather, “in the gates.” This work would naturally be delayed until the last phase.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 6

Now his enemies weren't yet through; they still continued to seek to hinder the work and discourage him. And so when Sanballat and Tobiah saw that the work was going on and the walls were getting up there, and there were just a few breaches left in the walls, that they sent a message to him saying, "Come on down into one of the cities, one of the villages, that we might talk with you, and that we might talk about détente and peaceful co-existence and all." And Nehemiah said, "I knew that they were intending mischief on me." And they kept sending these notes, "Come on down. We need to have a counsel. We need to meet together. We need to talk things over so that we can have an understanding." Four times they sent this kind of a message, but Nehemiah just ignored it. He said, "I'm too busy doing the work of God to take time out to talk." And he did not slow up the work, but just continued.

And then they sent the message and they said, "Now the rumor is that as soon as you get the walls built, you're going to proclaim yourself king and you're going to rebel against the king of Persia. And this is the message that is going to be sent to the king of Persia, so you better come down and so that we can get things straightened out." And so here is a little bit of extortion kind of a thing or blackmail. "If you don't come down and talk, we're going to send this message to the king of Persia that you are intending. Word is the rumor's out that you're intending as soon as the walls are up, you're going to proclaim yourself king and rebel against him." Of course, remember Nehemiah was in very good terms with Artaxerxes and he was a trusted servant to Artaxerxes. But when a fellow is gone for a while, you never know what might be upon his mind or heart, and such news going back to the king could be very bad. And yet, Nehemiah still refused to go down. He said there is no truth to it whatsoever and just affirmed the fact that it was a lie and that he was just going to go on continuing in the building. And he just said, "There's no truth to it." And he dismissed it.

Now he was willing to allow God to be his defense against the lies that were being circulated. And it's an important thing for us that we learn to allow God to become our defense. Now, if you seek to defend yourself, God often will not defend you. "You want to try to defend yourself, all right, go to it." But you know, you can get yourself so involved in trying to defend yourself from all of the attacks and all of the things that are being said that your whole life is just trying to go around and straighten out all the stories that are being told.

You'll be amazed at the stories that I have heard that are being told about me. My jets, and my yachts. My little grandson has a little yacht that he, with battery powered propeller that he puts in the swimming pool, but that's the closest thing to a yacht I have. And that's my grandson's. And I had a jet sweep one time, but never a jet airplane or never an airplane. But the Jehovah Witnesses have their story about me that they tell the people when they go door to door. The Mormons have their story that they tell the people about me when they go door to door, because we're one of the greatest threats to the Mormons and the Jehovah Witnesses in the county. Because we teach the Word of God and the truth is always the greatest threat to the lie.

Light is always the worst enemy of darkness. And because we just teach the Word of God, they have a difficult time with us. Because we don't have any Babylonish hang-ups. It makes it tough for them. And of course, you people do, too, because they've gotten wiped out so many times when they come to your doors they get skittish when they see a fish sign around or on the bumper. So a lot of times they'll just skip your house. And if you begin to challenge them with any kind of biblical intelligence at all, they'll usually say, "You go to Calvary Chapel? Well, Chuck Smith, you know," and then they got all kinds of interesting little stories of, "Well, someone talked to Chuck Smith and he said... " And this kind of stuff.

Now if I sought to go around defending myself from all of these things, "Who told you that?" I'm trying to trace it down. Get to the origin. I would be spending all my time trying to run down these stories. How the enemy would love that. Then I wouldn't have any time to study the Word of God, to prepare my heart before the Lord in order that I might feed you. He would love very much to detract us from our purpose of serving God. Detract you from your serving of the Lord. Getting you to try to build your defense and defend yourself against the attacks and the challenges or the lies or whatever.

He tried to distract Nehemiah. "This story has been told about you. It's going to be sent to the king. You better come down. We better talk about this." He said, "Nothing to it. It's a lie. I won't come down. I'm too busy doing the work of God. Busy in this work."

And so then they sent to him a fellow who came sort of in the guise of a prophet. "Thus saith the Lord, 'They're out to get you, Nehemiah. You better go into the temple and sleep at night so you'll be safe. Because they're apt to slip into the city at night and they're out to get you. And so you better get in the temple where you can get behind the closed doors and be safe in there.'" And Nehemiah said that he realized that this was an attempt to strike fear in his heart and to create a reaction out of fear.

Now so often our reactions out of fear are wrong. Fear can motivate us to wrong movement. And they were trying to strike fear in his heart. Trying to create this assailant. "Assassins are going to get you. You better go into the temple of God and close the doors and sleep in there at night lest you become assassinated." And he said, "I realize that he was not from God. That this was a lie. That they have paid him and put him up to this thing in order to strike fear in my heart." And he said, "Should such a one as I do this thing?" "Should such a one as I. I'm God's servant. God is watching over me. God is protecting me. Should I try to find refuge by hiding in the temple?"

My God, think upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to their works, and the prophecy, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear ( Nehemiah 6:14 ).

Satan tries to use fear so often because fear is an enemy of faith. I believe that fear and faith are mutually exclusive. If you have fear, you don't have faith. If you have faith, you don't have fear. Where fear is allowed to take over, faith departs. Where you have that strong faith and confidence in God, and of course, again, he encouraged the people not to be afraid, to remember God. And putting it into practice in his own life, remembering that God was watching over him.

Now again we do those things which are wise and prudent, but not motivated by fear or the fear of the enemy's attacks. And so he would not through fear seek to find shelter within the temple. If God wants to protect him, God can protect him out on the walls. And he doesn't have to hide in the temple.

So the wall was finished in the twenty-fifth day of the month of Elul, in fifty-two days ( Nehemiah 6:15 ).

They completed this project of the rebuilding of the wall. It was many years before the city was completely rebuilt. The houses within the city were still pretty much rubble, but now, at least, they had protection from their enemies. The walls have now been built, and now, of course, is just the setting up of the gate that is left there in the walls. But in fifty-two days they had finished the building of the wall.

Now there were even some Jews that weren't totally loyal to Nehemiah, and he makes mention of them. And they were reporting on him to Tobiah and Sanballat. And again, the idea was to put him into fear, but Nehemiah was not the kind of a man that would be brought down by fear. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The plot to distract Nehemiah 6:1-4

The plain of Ono, to which Nehemiah’s adversaries invited him for a meeting (Nehemiah 6:2), lay about 25 miles west and a little north of Jerusalem near Ashdod and Judah’s border with Samaria. Israel’s present international airport at Lod, just east of Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean coast, is very close to this site. It was in a kind of no-man’s land between Judah and Samaria. If Nehemiah had accepted this invitation he would have been many miles from Jerusalem for at least two days. This would have given the people of the land opportunity to attack the Jewish workmen.

"Chephirim" (Nehemiah 6:2) may be the proper name of a town. However since it is the plural of the Hebrew word for village it may be a general reference to the towns on the Ono plain. Another possibility is that this Hebrew word should be translated "with the lions" and that this is a figurative reference to the princes of the surrounding provinces. [Note: Richard Schiemann, "Covenanting with the Princes: Neh. VI:2," Vetus Testamentum 17 (July 1967):367-69.] Nehemiah turned down four invitations to this meeting (Nehemiah 6:4).

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

4. The attacks against Nehemiah 6:1-14

Nehemiah recorded three separate plots the Jews’ enemies instigated to frustrate his effective leadership.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Now it came to pass, when Sanballat and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall,.... Quite finished it:

and that there was no breach left therein; but all was made up firm and strong:

though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates; not upon all of them, though some might by the particular builders of them; and they all of them might be ready made, though not as yet put upon the hinges.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      1 Now it came to pass, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;)   2 That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief.   3 And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?   4 Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner.   5 Then sent Sanballat his servant unto me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand;   6 Wherein was written, It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king, according to these words.   7 And thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah: and now shall it be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together.   8 Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.   9 For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.

      Two plots upon Nehemiah we have here an account of, how cunningly they were laid by his enemies and how happily frustrated by God's good providence and his prudence.

      I. A plot to trepan him into a snare. The enemies had an account of the good forwardness the work was in, that all the breaches of the wall were made up, so that they considered it as good as done, though at that time the doors of the gates were off the hinges (Nehemiah 6:1; Nehemiah 6:1); they must therefore now or never, by one bold stroke, take off Nehemiah. They heard how well guarded he was, so that there was no attacking him upon the spot; they will therefore try by all the arts of wheedling to get him among them. Observe, 1. With what hellish subtlety they courted him to meet them, not in any city, lest that should excite a suspicion that they intended to secure him, but in a village in the lot of Benjamin: "Come, let us meet together to consult about the common interests of our provinces." Or they would have him think that they coveted his friendship, and would be glad to be better acquainted with him, in order to a good understanding between them and the settling of a good correspondence. But they thought to do him a mischief. It is probable that he had some secret intelligence given him that they designed to imprison or murder him; or he knew them so well that, without breach of charity, he concluded they aimed at his life, and therefore, when they spoke fair, he believed them not. 2. See with what heavenly wisdom he declined the motion. His God did instruct him to give them that prudent answer by messengers of his own: "I am doing a great work, am very busy, and am loth to let the work stand still while I leave it to come down to you," Nehemiah 6:3; Nehemiah 6:3. His care was that the work might not cease; he knew it would if he left it ever so little; and why should it cease while I come down to you? He says nothing of his jealousies, nor reproaches them for their treacherous design, but gives them a good reason and one of the true reasons why he would not come. Compliment must always give way to business. Let those that are tempted to idle merry meetings by their vain companions thus answer the temptation, "We have work to do, and must not neglect it." Four times they attacked him with the same solicitation, and he as often returned the same answer, which, we may suppose, was very vexatious to them; for really it was the ceasing of the work that they aimed at, and it would make them despair of breaking the undertaking to see the undertaker so intent upon it. I answered them (says he) after the same manner,Nehemiah 6:4; Nehemiah 6:4. Note, We must never suffer ourselves to be overcome by the greatest importunity to do any thing sinful or imprudent; but, when we are attacked with the same temptation, must still resist it with the same reason and resolution.

      II. A plot to terrify him from his work. Could they but drive him off, the work would cease of course. This therefore Sanballat attempts, but in vain. 1. He endeavours to possess Nehemiah with an apprehension that his undertaking to build the walls of Jerusalem was generally represented as factious and seditious, and would be resented accordingly at court, Nehemiah 6:5-7; Nehemiah 6:5-7. The best men, even in their most innocent and excellent performances, have lain under this imputation. This is written to him in an open letter, as a thing generally known and talked of, that it was reported among the nations, and Gashmu will aver it for truth, that Nehemiah was aiming to make himself king and to shake off the Persian yoke. Note, It is common for that which is the sense only of the malicious to be falsely represented by them as the sense of the many. Now Sanballat pretends to inform Nehemiah of this as a friend, that he might hasten to court to clear himself, or stay his proceedings, for fear they should be thus misconstrued; at least, upon this surmise, he urges him to give him the meeting--"Let us take counsel together how to quell the report," hoping by this means either to take him off, or at least to take him off from his business. Thus were his words softer than oil, and yet war was in his heart, and he hoped, like Judas, to kiss and kill. But surely in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird. Nehemiah was soon aware what they aimed at, to weaken their hands from the work (Nehemiah 6:9; Nehemiah 6:9), and therefore not only denied that such things were true, but that they were reported; he was better known than to be thus suspected. 2. Thus he escaped the snare and kept his ground, nor would he be frightened by winds and clouds from sowing and reaping. Suppose it was thus reported, we must never omit known duty merely for fear it should be misconstrued; but, while we keep a good conscience, let us trust God with our good name. But indeed it was not thus reported. God's people, though sufficiently loaded with reproach, yet are not really so low in reputation as some would have them thought to be.

      In the midst of his complaint of their malice, in endeavouring to frighten him, and so weaken his hands, he lifts up his heart to Heaven in this short prayer: Now therefore, O God! strengthen my hands. It is the great support and relief of good people that in all their straits and difficulties they have a good God to go to, from whom, by faith and prayer, they may fetch in grace to silence their fears and strengthen their hands when their enemies are endeavouring to fill them with fears and weaken their hands. When, in our Christian work and warfare, we are entering upon any particular services or conflicts, this is a good prayer for us to put up: "I have such a duty to do, such a temptation to grapple with; now therefore, O God! strengthen my hands." Some read it, not as a prayer, but as a holy resolution (for O God is supplied in our translation): Now therefore I will strengthen my hands. Note, Christian fortitude will be sharpened by opposition. Every temptation to draw us from duty should quicken us so much the more to duty.