Nehemiah 2:19

_BUT WHEN SANBALLAT THE HORONITE, AND TOBIAH THE SERVANT, THE AMMONITE, AND GESHEM THE ARABIAN, HEARD IT, THEY LAUGHED US TO SCORN, AND DESPISED US, AND SAID, WHAT IS THIS THING THAT YE DO? WILL YE REBEL AGAINST THE KING?_ Will ye rebel against the king? - i:e., the king of Babylon, the Persian monarch, to whom, it would seem, Moab, as well as Judea, was at that time tributary....

19,20 The enmity of the serpent's seed against the cause of Christ is confined to no age or nation. The application to ourselves is plain. The church of God asks for our help. Is it not desolate, and exposed to assaults? Does the consideration of its low estate cause you any grief? Let not business, pleasure, or the support of a party so engage attention, as that Zion and her welfare shall be nothing to you....

Verse 19. _GESHEM THE ARABIAN_] Some chief of the Arabs contiguous to Samaria, who had joined with Sanballat and Tobiah to distress the Jews, and hinder their work. _WILL YE REBEL AGAINST THE KING?_] This they said in order to raise jealousies in the king's mind, and induce him to recall his ordinance....

GESHEM THE ARABIAN - The discovery that Sargon populated Samaria in part with an Arab colony explains why Arabs should have opposed the fortification of Jerusalem....

EXPOSITION NEHEMIAH'S JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM (Nehemiah 3:9). On his way to Jerusalem, Nehemiah would pass through the provinces of various Persian satraps and governors. To those beyond the Euphrates he carried letters, which he took care to deliver, though by doing so he aroused the hostility of San-ballat. Being accompanied by an escort of Persian soldiers, he experienced neither difficulty nor danger by the way, but effected his journey in about three months. NEHEMIAH 2:9 I CAME TO THE GOVERNORS BEYOND THE RIVER. Josephus gives the name of the satrap, of Syria at this time as Adieus ('Ant. Jud; Neh

LAUGHED The obstacle of ridicule....

CHAPTER 2 _ 1. The King's question (Nehemiah 2:1)_ 2. The King's permission (Nehemiah 2:3) 3. The arrival in Jerusalem and the night-ride (Nehemiah 2:9) 4. The resolution to build the wall (Nehemiah 2:17) 5. The ridicule of the enemy, and Nehemiah's answer (Nehemiah 2:19) Nehemiah 2:1. The last sentence of the previous chapter, “For I was the king's cupbearer,” belongs to this chapter. Nehemiah is seen exercising the

NEHEMIAH ARRIVES IN JERUSALEM AND SURVEYS THE WALLS. Nehemiah 2:9. The account of the journey is omitted, interest being centred upon what Nehemiah was going to do in Jerusalem. THE GOVERNORS BEYOND THE RIVER: namely of the provinces on the west of the Euphrates; as Nehemiah would almost certainly pass through Hamath and Damascus, the two most important cities in Syria, the governors here resident are probably intended. THE KING. HORSEMEN: _cf._ Nehemiah 4:16; Nehemiah 4:23; this body-guard remained with Nehemiah in Jerusalem. Contrast Ezra 8:22....

GESNEM. Called Gashmu (Nehemiah 6:6), an Arab Sheik. Like the other two, an alien. In Psalms 83:6, all three nationalities associated as the enemies of Israel. ARABIAN. Descendants of Hagar. Hence Hagarenes. THEY LAUGHED, &C The second form of opposition. See note on "grieved", Nehemiah 2:10....

_b_ 73 _a_. The Register of those who returned with Zerubbabel = Ezra 2:1-70 _a register of the genealogy_ R.V. THE BOOK. _of them which came up at the first_ The only natural explanation of these words is that Nehemiah found in the archives of Jerusalem the list of those that accompanied Zerubbabel from Babylon. This seems to be conclusively proved (_a_) by the words in Nehemiah 2:5, -I found," -who came up at the first," -found written therein," and Nehemiah 2:7, -who came with Zerubbabel," (_b_) by the position of the parallel extract in Ezra 2:1-70. Nehemiah recognises the national importance