Chapter Six

1–14. The schemes of enemies against Nehemiah and their failure. 15–16. The completion of the wall of Jerusalem and the impression this made on the neighbors. 17–19. Tobiah’s relationship with Nehemiah and his relationship with some of the Jerusalem nobles.

Nehemiah 6:1. When Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall, and that there was no breach left in it (although up to that time I had not yet set up the doors in the gates,) For information about the persons named in verse 1, see the note on (Neh 2:10). “And the rest of our enemies”: probably the Azotians and other inhabitants of the Philistine coast.

Nehemiah 6:2. Then Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.” They were planning to do me harm. Perhaps with the aim of clarifying rumors, Sanballat and Geshem invite Nehemiah to meet in one of the villages (kephirim) on the plain of Ono. Kephirim, with the article, is taken by some exegetes as a proper name and is identified with Kephira mentioned in (Ezra 2:25), which served as a boundary point of the Judean territory at that time. The ruins of Kephira, according to Robinson (N. bibl. Forsch. 190), are located at a distance of 3 hours’ journey from Gibeon. According to (1 Chr 8:12; Neh 11:35), the plain of Ono lay near Lod and therefore can be identified with the present Kefr-Ana (or K.-Andi), which is located two hours’ journey from Lod and 40 versts to the northwest of Jerusalem.

Nehemiah 6:3. But I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you? Nehemiah 6:4. They sent to me four times with the same invitation, and I answered them the same way. The reason for Nehemiah’s refusal to comply with the invitation that was repeated four times from the enemies was not only the unwillingness to delay the building by his absence, as is indicated in verse 3, but also fear of the treacherous schemes of the enemies.

Nehemiah 6:5. Then Sanballat sent his servant to me the fifth time with an open letter in his hand. For the fifth time, Sanballat sent a servant to Jerusalem with an open letter in his hands. Evidently Sanballat wished that the accusations contained in the letter be known to all in Jerusalem, and that these accusations – either by terrifying them, would cause the building of the wall to stop (v. 9), or would induce Nehemiah to go to the plain of Ono for explanations.

Nehemiah 6:6. In it was written: “A report is circulating among the nations, and Geshem says that you and the Jews are planning to rebel, for which reason you are building the wall and want to be their king, according to these reports; Nehemiah 6:7. and you have also appointed prophets to proclaim about you in Jerusalem, saying, “There is a king of Judah!” Now such matters will be reported to the king. So now, come, let us take counsel together. “Rumors are circulating among the nations” – of course, among the neighboring nations. “And Geshem says”: in the Hebrew text instead of Geshem, Gashmu is read, which is evidently the same as Geshem. Apparently, Geshem is presented as a particularly authoritative person.

Nehemiah 6:8. But I sent word to him, saying, “None of these things that you are saying have happened; you are inventing them out of your own mind. Nehemiah 6:9. For they all were trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.” But now I strengthened my hands all the more. The schemes of Sanballat, as is evident from verses 8–9, not only did not achieve their goal – to stop the building of the walls – but on the contrary, gave more vigor to Nehemiah (“I strengthened my hands all the more”).

Nehemiah 6:10. I came to the house of Shemaiah, son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, and he was shut in and said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple, because they will come to kill you, and they will come to kill you at night. After unsuccessful attempts to destroy Nehemiah, Sanballat devised a scheme to induce him through trickery to violate the law and thereby undermine his authority with the people. He used for this purpose the assistance of the prophet Shemaiah, who was apparently one of the strongest (v. 14) opponents of Nehemiah. When Nehemiah came to the house of Shemaiah, the latter, in the name of the Lord, announced to Nehemiah that his enemies intended to kill him that night. To avoid the danger, Shemaiah proposed to Nehemiah to go with him to the temple and to shut themselves in. By agreeing to this proposal, Nehemiah, on one hand, would have shown fear of the enemies, and on the other, would have violated the precepts of the law, for as a layman, he had no right to enter the temple. Both would have lowered Nehemiah’s authority in the eyes of the people. – “And he was shut in,” Hebrew vehu azur, “and he was closed,” – a remark whose exact meaning is difficult to establish. Bertheau understands this remark to mean that Shemaiah was in a state of inspiration; Ewald and Robinson – that Shemaiah was in a state of uncleanness. According to Keil, Shemaiah’s confinement had a symbolic significance – it indicated what Nehemiah was to do. But more simply to understand the expression vehu azar to mean that Shemaiah was withdrawing from public activity, and the visit of Nehemiah was prompted by a desire to learn the reason for this withdrawal.

Nehemiah 6:11. But I said, “Should a man like me run away? And should a man like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go. Nehemiah 6:12. I perceived that God had not sent him, and that he had pronounced this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. Nehemiah 6:13. For this reason he was hired, so that I would be frightened and act accordingly, and sin, and so that they might have an evil report about me to discredit me. Nehemiah, as is evident from verse 11, understood the hidden purpose of Shemaiah’s proposal and therefore answered him with a refusal, having convinced himself that Shemaiah had been bribed by the enemies.

Nehemiah 6:14. Remember me, my God, concerning Tobiah and Sanballat and what they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to frighten me! As is evident from the comparison of verses 7 and 14, among the prophets, as indeed among all the people, there were two directions: some of the prophets aided Nehemiah, while others, including Shemaiah and the prophetess Noadiah, were opposed to separation from the neighbors and reform in a strictly lawful manner. These two directions in Judaism, having begun in the time of Nehemiah, persisted in the subsequent history (see about this M. Posnov, Judaism. On the Characteristics of the Internal Life of the Jewish People in the Post-Exilic Period. Kiev, 1906. P. 5–104).

Nehemiah 6:15. So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Elul, in fifty-two days. The year in which the walls of Jerusalem were completed is not mentioned, probably because it was assumed to be known from earlier indications (cf. Neh 1:1). This was the 20th year of Artaxerxes, and most likely of Artaxerxes Longimanus (cf. note on (Ezra 7:1)) or 445 (444) B.C. Elul was the 12th month of the year. In verse 15, what draws attention is the fact that for the construction of the wall, an extremely short period is specified (52 days). In view of the brevity of the period, as well as the testimony of Josephus (Jewish Antiquities XI, 5, 7), that the building of the wall lasted 2 years and 4 months, some exegetes are inclined to suspect a textual corruption in verse 15. But with the general course of the account of the building of the wall, the indication in verse 15 of a short period is entirely consistent. The account notes that the building was carried out rapidly, that there were many builders, and they worked with zeal. Moreover, it is evident from the account that the wall was not being built anew, but only repaired, and for some parts of the wall (cf. Neh 3:13-15), repair was not even needed. According to Ryssel’s calculations, of the 12,978 English feet of the wall’s extent, not more than 8,000 were repaired. As is evident from chapter 3, this space was divided into 40 sections, averaging about 200 feet for each. With a significant number of workers and with the facilitation of work by the fact that the building material was at hand, since the stones of the destroyed wall had not been carried away, – it is not surprising that the wall was completed in 52 days. The walls of Athens were built even faster under Themistocles, and the walls of Alexandria under Alexander the Great.

Nehemiah 6:16. When all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. The impression produced on the neighbors by the completion of the building of the walls is greatly heightened in the Greek and Slavonic texts: “and they feared greatly all the nations which were around us, and fear fell before their eyes”). In the first sentence, apparently instead of the Hebrew raah (to see), the Septuagint read jareh (to fear), and in the second sentence they freely rendered a rare turn of phrase that exists in the original.

Nehemiah 6:17. Moreover, in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and letters from Tobiah came to them. Nehemiah 6:18. For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah, son of Arah, and his son Johanan had married the daughter of Meshullam, son of Berechiah. In the last verses of chapter 6, several remarks are made about Nehemiah’s relationship with Tobiah. Probably, Tobiah, who bore, like his son Johanan, a purely Israelite name, by origin belonged to one of the tribes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and perhaps championed the interests of the survivors of that kingdom who remained in Palestine. He maintained frequent relations with Jerusalem, for many in Judah “were bound by oath to him” (v. 18). From the last remark one can conclude that at the conclusion of marriages, relatives gave an oath obligation to support one another. – The names Arah and Meshullam, into whose houses Tobiah was connected by marriage, are mentioned again in (Ezra 2:5; Neh 3:4). It is supposed that Tobiah’s father-in-law Shecaniah and Johanan’s father-in-law Meshullam belonged to the descendants of Zerubbabel (1 Chr 3:19-21). As is evident from (Neh 13:4), Tobiah was also a relative of the high priest Eliashib.

Nehemiah 6:19. Also they spoke of his good deeds before me, and my words were reported to him. Tobiah sent letters to me in order to frighten me. “Also they spoke of his good deeds before me,” – apparently with the aim of bringing Nehemiah closer to Tobiah. Since the meaning of verse 19 is not entirely clear and the parallelism in it is not maintained, not without reason do some exegetes (Heine, Bertholet) suspect a textual corruption in this case.