Nehemiah 6:10-14

3. Tobiah tries his hand at discrediting Nehemiah.

TEXT, Nehemiah 6:10-14

10

And when I entered the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined at home, he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are corning to kill you, and they are coming to kill you at night.

11

But I said, Should a man like me flee? And could one such as I go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.

12

Then I perceived that surely God had not sent him, but he uttered his prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

13

He was hired for this reason, that I might become frightened and act accordingly and sin, so that they might have an evil report in order that they could reproach me.

14

Remember, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat according to these works of theirs, and also Noadiah the prophetess and the rest of the prophets who were trying to frighten me.

COMMENT

In Nehemiah 6:10-14 Tobiah's plan is unveiled. Perhaps his absence in the previous paragraphs is to be explained by the necessity for him to be setting up his stand-by plan.

Shemaiah, in Nehemiah 6:10, is not identified further than by naming his father and grandfather. Some suppose that he was a priest[59] because he proposed that he and Nehemiah hide in the Temple, which was forbidden territory for anyone but priests; Shemaiah would have been spared, but Nehemiah could have been executed for such an infraction of the law. Laymen had the right of sanctuary at the altar, but not inside the building. Others see him as a prophet, specifically a false prophet, because his proposition is in the form of poetry (it is so arranged in the Anchor Bible[60]), as most prophecies were (especially false prophecies); and because it is called a prophecy in Nehemiah 6:12. If he were not a priest, he would have needed some other ruse to get Nehemiah into the building while he stayed outside, for example. It is useless to speculate beyond what the Bible has recorded, and it does not tell which he was.

[59] Ellicott's Commentary on The Whole Bible, Vol. III. p. 492.

[60] Anchor Bible, Ezra-Nehemiah, p. 122.

Shemaiah's being shut up has also been variously interpreted. Perhaps the most likely explanation is that he was seeking to overcome Nehemiah's suspicion of him by pretending to be in as much danger as he; they would both need to go into the Temple to save their lives.

In Nehemiah 6:11, Nehemiah was not taken in by this trick. First, he trusted his position as a Persian official to give him more protection than could be provided by stealth: Should a man like me flee? Secondly, he saw the proposition as involving the violation of a sacred law (Numbers 18:7); the preferred reading then is, Could one such as I go into the Temple and live?

Nehemiah 6:12 may subtly suggest a third reason: he discerned (by a flash of insight perhaps) that surely God had not sent him. All true prophecies must come from God; a prophet was not allowed to originate his own message, to speak from himself (Deuteronomy 18:20); Shemaiah had not used the formula, Thus saith the Lord! Sometimes a knowledge of the Scriptures can save a man's life. This proved to be a good hunch; Sanballat and Tobiah had hired the man to speak this deception.

In Nehemiah 6:13, Nehemiah speaks of the plot only as an effort to discredit him and cause him to sin. This would have been enough to end the effectiveness of his particular ministry; his death would have been incidental.

Nehemiah 6:14 provides a pause in the action, and another of Nehemiah's quickie prayers. He asks that God keep in mind what his enemies have done. Noadiah is not known from any other reference. The mention of women prophets is rare, but there were some whom God used (Judges 4:4; Luke 2:36).

WORD STUDIES

REMEMBER (Nehemiah 6:14: Zakar): from the idea of pricking or piercing comes the idea of penetrating or infixing; thus remembering, recalling, considering.

GESHEM (Nehemiah 6:1): violent storm, severe shower.

STRENGTHEN (Nehemiah 6:9: Chazaq): the primary idea is to bind fast, to gird tight; then to cleave, or adhere firmly.

Things are strengthened by being bound together; a spear may be made stronger by winding it round with a cord. One's strength seems greater when he has fastened a girdle about his loins.
A very free translation might be, Give my hands stick-to-it-iveness! Or, Link our hands together (with others, or Yours)! Or, Hitch up my belt! Or just Give me strength.