Sanballat and Tobiah were enemies of the *Jews. They did not want the *Jews to build the walls of Jerusalem again. They probably knew that Jerusalem would become an important city for trade again. So then, they would lose some of their trade. They knew that it was a big task to build the walls of th... [ Continue Reading ]
THE *JEWS BUILD JERUSALEM’S CITY WALL AGAIN NEHEMIAH _ROBERT BRYCE AND ROBERT BETTS_ CHAPTER 4 V1 Sanballat heard that we were building the wall again. So he became very angry. He laughed at the *Jews. V2 His companions and the army from the country called Samaria were with him. Sanballat said... [ Continue Reading ]
So Nehemiah prayed. That is what we would expect him to do. Perhaps he called the people together to pray. (He says ‘us’ in his prayer.) He knew that his enemies were not just insulting the *Jews. They were insulting God himself. So he knew that God was angry. So the *Jews did not take notice of t... [ Continue Reading ]
The enemies of the *Jews heard that their insults had not succeeded. The *Jews had not stopped the work, but, instead, they had worked very hard. And the wall had reached half of its final height. So Sanballat and his friends were very angry. They needed another plan. These enemies lived all round... [ Continue Reading ]
Now some of the *Jews were feeling tired. The work was hard and their enemies were all round them. These problems upset them. So they began to complain. The enemies of the *Jews still tried to stop the work. They plotted to surprise the *Jews with a sudden attack. Some of the *Jews heard about thei... [ Continue Reading ]
The enemies of the *Jews heard that Nehemiah and the people knew about their plan. So their plan could not succeed. They failed because God was helping the *Jews. He had stopped the plans of Sanballat and his friends. The *Jews were able to continue with the work. But they still needed to be ready.... [ Continue Reading ]
Nehemiah decided to change the arrangements for the work. He wanted to make sure that everybody was ready for an attack. Now, even the men who worked on the wall had their own *weapons. But only half of the men worked on the wall. The other men were ready to fight. They had many *weapons. Their job... [ Continue Reading ]
So the people continued to work. Some repaired the walls and the rest protected them. They all worked even harder from dawn until nightfall. Even the people who lived outside Jerusalem stayed in the city at night. Nehemiah was a good model for the people. He was the ruler. But he did not think that... [ Continue Reading ]