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But it came to pass, that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews.

But it came to pass — The devil and his imps have ever been utter enemies to reformation. So do savage beasts bristle up themselves, and make the most fierce assaults, when they are in danger of losing the prey which they had once seized on. Jabeshgilead would send in none to help the Lord against the mighty, Judges 21:9 . No more would Meroz, Judges 5:23 . Josiah met with much opposition; so did St Paul wherever he came, to set up evangelical and spiritual worship; which is called a reformation, Hebrews 9:10 . All the world was against Athanasius in his generation, and Luther in his; rejecting what they attempted, with scorn and slander. Here it is quarrel enough to Nehemiah and his Jews, that they would be no longer miserable. They were not more busy in building than the enemies active in deriding, conspiring, practising to hinder and overthrow them. A double derision is here recorded; and both as full of mischief as profane wit or rancoured malice could make them.

He was wroth — Heb. He was enkindled, and all on a light fire; he was as hot as Nebuchadnezzar’s oven, very hot, he took great indignation, and was so unreasonably enraged, as if he would have fallen forthwith into a frenzy or apoplexy; as that Roman emperor did, by raging at his servant. He was grieved before, Nehemiah 2:1 , but now he was maddened.

And mocked the Jews — By word and gesture, fleering and jeering, flouting and scoffing at them, as the Pharisees also did at our Saviour, Luke 16:14 ; David’s enemies at him, upon their ale bench; Sir Thomas More and other learned Papists, at the new gospellers. See Nehemiah 2:19 . This might have dismayed these poor Jews, and put them out of countenance: for our nature is most impatient with reproaches; there being none so mean but thinks himself worthy of some regard: and a reproachful scorn (such as these here) shows an utter disrespect, which issueth from the very superfluity of malice. If God had not strengthened them, saith one, it would have made them leave their work, and run away.

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And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?

And he spake before his brethren — i.e., before his companions and acomplices, who would second him and say the same, his Aiones and Negones, as one calleth such.

And the army of Samaria — The garrison soldiers; or those that lay there billeted, to observe the people.

What do these feeble Jews? — These beggarly shiftless fellows, these Asinarii (as Molon and Appion of Alexandria disgracefully called the Jews); like as Tertullian tells us that the Pagans painted the God of the Christians with an ass’s head and a book in his hand; to note that they were silly and despicable people. Bishop Jewell, in a sermon of his, citeth this out of Tertullian, and addeth, Do not our adversaries the like at this day against all that profess the gospel?

Will they fortify themselves? — Heb. Will they leave to themselves, sc. anything to trust unto? Junius renders An sinerent eos? should they (sc. the officers and soldiers) suffer them thus to do?

Will they sacrifice? — sc. at the dedication of their new walls? Will they do this all at once? and think they, without more ado, to have the liberty of their sanctuary?

Will they make an end in a day? — It should seem so by their Cito, Cito, quick despatch of their parts and task, …

Will they revive the stones, … — Stones they lack for their new wall: where will they have them? will they glue together the old stones, and revive them out of the rubbish? will they do this? or, what will they do?

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Now Tobiah the Ammonite [was] by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.

Now Tobiah the Ammonite — This was one of Sanballat’s good brethren, Nehemiah 4:2 . A bird of the same feather, a loaf of the same leaven, his fellow scoffer, and so homine peior, saith Chrysostom, worse than a man; as the scoffed that beareth it well, is Angelis par, saith he, an angel’s peer.

Even that which they build, if a fox go up, … — It was some such bitter jeer that Remus uttered in contempt of Romulus’s new wall, and was knocked on the head for it. Hae sannae leniter volant, non leniter violant.

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Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity:

Hear, O our God — These mocks and menaces lay so heavy upon Nehemiah’s spirit, that he could not ease himself but by breathing heavenward; and turning them over to God to take an order with them. His prayer is not long, but full. A child may not chat in his father’s presence: his words must be humble, earnest, direct to the point, avoiding vain babblings and tedious drawn out affairs.

For we are despised — Heb. We are contempt in the abstract. Not vilified we are only, but nullified, as a company of ουτιδανοι , no bodies. So Paul (the most precious man upon earth) and his companions (the glory of Christ, and a royal diadem in the hand of Jehovah, Isaiah 62:3 ) were looked upon as the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things, 1 Corinthians 4:13 . What matter is it, then, what becometh of us? We have a God to turn us to, and Demetrius hath testimony of the truth; that is enough, let Diotrephes prate what he pleaseth, 3 John 1:9 .

And turn their reproach upon their own heads — Surely God scorneth these scorners, saith Solomon, Proverbs 3:34 ; that is, saith Rabbi Levi upon that text, he casts them into some calamity, and so makes them a laughing stock to those whom they have laughed at. God loves to retaliate, to pay men home in their own coin. Thus he dealt by Appion of Alexandria; who, scoffing at religion (and especially at circumcision), had an ulcer the same time and in the same place (Josephus). The like ill end befell Julian the apostate, whose daily practice was to scoff at Christ and his people. Dioclesian the emperor (as Volaterran writes) had a jester called Genesius, who used to make him merry at meals, and, among their devices, would scoff and squib at Christians; but God plagued him, for example to others. And the like he did to Morgan, that mocking bishop of St David’s; to John Apowel, who derided William Mauldon for his devotion; and lastly, to one Lever, of Brightwell, in Berkshire, who said that he saw that ill-favoured knave Latimer when he was burned at Oxford, and that he had teeth like a horse. But the Lord suffered not this scorn and contempt of his servant to pass unpunished; for that very day, and about the same hour, that Lever spake these words, his son wickedly hanged himself, saith mine author. Lege, cave. Read and take note!

And give them for a prey, … — A heavy curse, and, as not causeless (against implacable enemies to God and goodness), so nor fruitless. Woe be to such as against whom the saints, moved with a zeal of God, shall imprecate vengeance. God usually inflicts what they denounce against his and their irreconcilable adversaries. Fire proceeds out of their mouths, …, Revelation 11:5 .

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And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee: for they have provoked [thee] to anger before the builders.

Ver 5. And cover not their iniquity. — O fearful imprecation! Surely if they only are blessed whose sin is covered, Psalms 32:1 , what shall become of those that are in a contrary condition? If pardon of sin be such a voluminous mercy, as having many other mercies bound up with it, think what a misery it is to have sin imputed; and get a cover speedily, for that abominable filth, and to God himself an eye sore.

For they have provoked thee to anger, … — This was it that Nehemiah so stomached; and that drew from him these dreadful imprecations, viz. God’s glory, and not any self-concern: he hated and cursed non virum, sed virium, …

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So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.

So built we the wall — This followed upon his prayer, as a gracious answer to it; the people were encouraged, and the wall finished. Faithful prayer is never ineffectual. Reproaching is a heart breaking, Psalms 66:20 , but so long as a Christian can pray he is not without his cordial. "I came for thy prayer," Daniel 10:12 .

And all the wall was joined together — Not with gold indeed (as Cassiodorus saith the walls of Susa in Persia were), but with that which was better than gold, faith in God’s goodness and zeal of his glory.

Unto the half thereof — Unto half the height, for they could not do all at once: neither can we in the spiritual building; but grow up and increase with the increase of God, Colossians 2:19 .

For the people had a mind to work — And the more mind because they met with so much opposition. A free spirit is most seen, saith one, when there be most rubs in the way; when he that moves by outward poises will stick and be dull: as when a bowl runs up a hill, every bounce slows it; but when downhill, a bounce quickeneth it.

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But it came to pass, [that] when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, [and] that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth,

And the Arabians’ and the Ammonites — A rabble of malignants meet and make head. Sanballat, by the help of Tobiah, had now gotten a great band of soldiers, and specially of Arabians, Ammonites, and Ashdodites, to fight for him against this feeble folk, but yet armed with God, and that had him for their champion. So we may see how readily one wicked man will be drawn to help another; and how the wickedness of one will infect another that will give ear to it. Read Psalms 83:6-8 Revelation 16:16-17 , …

Heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up — Heb. That health (or as the old translation hath it, a salve) ascended upon the walls. A metaphor from surgeons, who when they heal wounds by salves or plasters, join the flesh together again which before was cut in sunder: so the breaches of the walls, which afore lay gaping open, were joined together, and made sound, as though it were one entire wall, et quasi tota moles in tantam magnitudinem ex unico ingenti lapide tam magnifice consurgeret.

Then they were very wroth — That old enmity, Genesis 3:15 , stirred in them, and they were soon kindled; Satan being the boute-feu, or kindle coal. See Nehemiah 4:1 .

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And conspired all of them together to come [and] to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.

And conspired all of them together — All of them, and together; and yet this was not unity, but conspiracy; such as is that among devils, Mark 5:9 , among Antichristians, Revelation 17:13 , among Turks, who have as little dissension in their religion as any. But well may that garment have no seam that hath no shape. The army of Nineveh was quiet, Nahum 1:12 , no falling out nor complaining in their hosts; hence their king marched on, passed through. But so did not these conspirators, because they met with those that were no less well combined and far better resolved than themselves. The Thebans had a band of men they called Sacra Cohors, sacred cohorts, ιερος λοχος (Athen. 1.3), consisting of such only as were joined in the bonds of love, and resolved to live and die together. These Jews under the command of Nehemiah were none other, and were therefore insuperable.

To come and to fight — To turn their works into knocks.

And to hinder it — Heb. To make an error in it. The Hebrew word is used both of the error of the heart and of the foot, Isaiah 63:17 Psalms 119:176 . It may be rendered here, to hinder him, to make an error in him; to make Nehemiah at a stand, or rather to run away, to creep into corners, and give over the work.

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