ans, Ammonites, Philistines from Ashdod—planning to attack with an army and bring the project forcibly to a halt. Receiving information as to this threat, Nehemiah and his compan ions first of all prayed. But they also began to exert greater care. After this the Jews themselves be came generally discouraged. Com plaints became common — their strength was weakened (possibly by using some as watchmen rather than laborers)—there was so much rub bish that they couldn’t build the wall. Luck, “The Samaritans and their allies now began to spread the report that very shortly they would fall on the Jews in secret attack, so that be fore the latter realized what was happening they would be in their midst slaughtering the workers and forcing the endeavor to cease. Such reports were brought to Nehemiah a number of times by the Jews re siding closest to the Samaritans. The statement of these border dwellers in the latter part of verse 12 is not perfectly clear in its meaning. Did they mean that the contingents of workers from their locality ought to stop work on the wall and return to protect their homes? Or did they in tend to express the thought that the enemies would fall on the builders in many places disrupting the work? “Be that as it may, Nehemiah’s reaction to this was to place groups of men with weapons at the lower points of the wall as it was thus far constructed. These guards were set on high spots where they could easily be seen over the low wall by the ene mies.” Nehemiah urged his people to re member the Lord and to fight vali antly for Him and for their families. The result was that the attackers, when they saw that the Israelites were well prepared for them, called off their charge and left the Jews to return to their task of building.
called Ophel (v. 27). Beyond this was the horse gate (v. 28)—a gate at the southeast corner of the tem ple through which horses could en ter. Priests lived in this area and re paired this portion of the wall. The east gate (v. 29) was the main entrance into the temple from the Mount of Olives. It was also called the Shushan gate and the beautiful gate (Acts 3:2). The exact location of the gate Miphkad (vv. 31, 32) is unknown. It must have been somewhere around the northeast section of the wall. The name is said to mean “gate of judgment.” In chapter 4 the work continues despite opposition. When Sanballat learned that construction on the wall was progressing in a systematic, businesslike way, Sanballat became exceedingly angry and indignant. His first recourse was to mockery. His tirade was in the form of a series of sarcastic questions—all im plying that they would never be able to fortify the city. Tobiah took up the jest and carried it further. When Nehemiah heard of this, his response was to turn to God (vv. 4-6). He certainly must have been a real man of prayer, as this is one of no less than eight brief prayers re corded in his short book (for the others, see 2:4; 5:19; 6:9,14; 13:14, 22. 29). Despite ridicule and threat, the labor continued unabated until even tually the wall was half completed— that is, was completed half way up to the intended height. It should be carefully observed that the reason such rapid progress was made is be cause “the people had a mind to work.” Such a spirit is sorely needed among God’s people today, as there is much work to be done. When they saw that the work was advancing exceedingly well, Sanbal lat turned from ridicule to open at tack. First they made alliances with other enemies of the Jews—Arabi
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