Nehemiah 6:4

_AND I SENT MESSENGERS UNTO THEM, SAYING, I AM DOING A GREAT WORK, SO THAT I CANNOT COME DOWN: WHY SHOULD THE WORK CEASE, WHILST I LEAVE IT, AND COME DOWN TO YOU?_ No JFB commentary on these verses....

1-9 Let those who are tempted to idle merry meetings by vain companions, thus answer the temptation, We have work to do, and must not neglect it. We must never suffer ourselves to be overcome, by repeated urgency, to do anything sinful or imprudent; but when attacked with the same temptation, must resist it with the same reason and resolution. It is common for that which is desired only by the malicious, to be falsely represented by them as desired by the many. But Nehemiah knew at what they aimed, he not only denied that such things were true, but that they were reported; he was better known than to be thus suspected. We must never omit any known duty for fear it should be misconstrued; but, while we keep a good conscience, let us trust God with our good name. God's people, though loaded with reproach, are not really fallen so low in reputation as some would have them thought to be. Ne...

EXPOSITION SECRET PROCEEDINGS OF SANBALLAT AND HIS FRIENDS TO HINDER THE BUILDING OF THE WALL, AND THEIR FAILURE. THE WALL COMPLETED (Nehemiah 6:1.). When the open opposition failed, when it was found that Nehemiah's arrangements for guarding the wall (Nehemiah 4:13) were such that success was not likely to attend the employment of force by the confederates, with such resources as they had at their disposal, and the idea of an assault was therefore give

CHAPTER 6 _ 1. The attempt to entice Nehemiah (Nehemiah 6:1)_ 2. The attempt to intimidate him (Nehemiah 6:5) 3. The attempt through a false prophet (Nehemiah 6:10) 4. The wall finished (Nehemiah 6:15) 5. The conspiracy between Jewish nobles and Tobiah (Nehemiah 6:17) Nehemiah 6:1. Defeated in all previous efforts to hinder the work and to do harm to the builders of the wall, the enemies made new attempts to make

NEHEMIAH'S ENEMIES MAKE A FURTHER ATTEMPT TO FRUSTRATE HIS WORK. The narrative about the rebuilding of the walls, which was broken by ch. 5, is here taken up again. Sanballat and his confederates seek to allure Nehemiah to a conference in order thus to get him into their power. Nehemiah refuses to go to this meeting on the ground that he is too busy with the work which he has in hand. Sanballat, having tried four times in vain to persuade Nehemiah to come, at length tries to intimidate him by sending him a letter in which he accuses him of aspiring to the kingship, and threatens to report this to the king. Sanballat thinks that by this means he may induce Nehemiah to come and meet him. Nehemiah, however, merely denies Sanballat's allegations, telling him that he has made them up. Nehemiah 6:2. the plain of Ono: _cf._...

FOUR TIMES. The enemy takes no denial. AFTER THE SAME MANNER. The only sure and safe procedure. Compare 1 Samuel 17:30....

_yet_ R.V. AND. The A.V. suggests the thought which the copula does not express, that in spite of such a rebuff Sanballat and his companions were not daunted. _after this sort … after the same manner_ The Hebrew phrase is the same in both cases. As it occurs again in the next verse (Nehemiah 6:5, -in like manner"), though the nature of the message is different, we clearly must not press the words here to mean a literal repetition of the request and answer. It only indicates a general similarity in the character of the four applications, and in the answers which they elicited. Cf. for the use of this phrase 1Sa 17:27; 1 Samuel 17:30; 2 Samuel 15:6....

DISCOURSE: 442 NEHEMIAH’S FIRMNESS Nehemiah 6:3. _I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you? Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner_. NEVER can we be sufficiently thankful for the records which are given us respecting the saints of old. When we are put into arduous circumstances ourselves, and see the line of conduct which is required of us, we are ready to think that the requisition is impracticable. But when we behold others, in similar circumstances, approving themselves faithful to their God, we are encouraged, and emboldened to undertake whatever may come before us in the path of duty. Nehemiah, having received from the Persian monarch authority to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, addressed himself to t

TEXT AND VERSE-BY-VERSE COMMENT F. The enemies resort to tactics of diversion, but the wall is completed. 1. Sanballat and Geshem plot treachery through invitation to a conference. TEXT, NEHEMIAH 6:1-4 1 Now it came about when it was reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, to Geshem the Arab, and to the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall, and that no breach remained in it although at that time I had not set up the doors in the gates, 2 that Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me, saying, Come, let us meet together at Chephirim in the plain of Ono. But they were planning to harm me. 3 So I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you? 4 And they sent messages to me four times in this manner, and I answered them in t

ATTEMPTS OF SANBALLAT TO HINDER THE COMPLETION OF THE WALLS 2. Ono] near Lod (Ezra 2:33), now Kefr Ana, some 25 m. from Jerusalem....