_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._ When Sanballat heard ... he was wroth. The Samaritan faction showed their bitter animosity to the Jews on discovering the systematic design of re-fortifying Jeru... [ Continue Reading ]
_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?_ No JFB commentary on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
_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._ If a fox go up - the foxes were mentioned from their having been known, in great numbers, to infest the ruined and desolate places in the mount and city of Zion... [ Continue Reading ]
_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; for we are despised. The imprecations invoked here may seem harsh, cruel, and vindictive. But it must be remembered that Nehemiah and his friends... [ Continue Reading ]
_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._ No JFB commentary on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
_SO BUILT WE THE WALL; AND ALL THE WALL WAS JOINED TOGETHER UNTO THE HALF THEREOF: FOR THE PEOPLE HAD A MIND TO WORK._ All the wall was joined together unto the half thereof. The whole circuit of the wall had been distributed in sections to various companies of the people, and was completed to the... [ Continue Reading ]
_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,_ But ... when Sanballat ... heard that the walls ... were made up, an... [ Continue Reading ]
_AND CONSPIRED ALL OF THEM TOGETHER TO COME AND TO FIGHT AGAINST JERUSALEM, AND TO HINDER IT._ No JFB commentary on these verses.... [ Continue Reading ]
_AND IT CAME TO PASS, THAT WHEN THE JEWS WHICH DWELT BY THEM CAME, THEY SAID UNTO US TEN TIMES, FROM ALL PLACES WHENCE YE SHALL RETURN UNTO US THEY WILL BE UPON YOU._ When the Jews which dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times (i:e., repeatedly). From all places whence ye shall return unto... [ Continue Reading ]
_THEREFORE SET I IN THE LOWER PLACES BEHIND THE WALL, AND ON THE HIGHER PLACES, I EVEN SET THE PEOPLE AFTER THEIR FAMILIES WITH THEIR SWORDS, THEIR SPEARS, AND THEIR BOWS._ No JFB commentary on these verses.... [ Continue Reading ]
_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._ None of us put off our clothes, saving that everyone put them off for washing. Many writers, with Grotius, think that they di... [ Continue Reading ]