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JULY 27
of Shechaniah the son of Arah, and his son
Jehohanan had married the daughter of
Meshullam the son of Berechiah. Also they
19
6:10 secret informer. When the open letter reported his good deeds before me, and
failed to intimidate Nehemiah into stopping reported my words to him. Tobiah sent letters
the work and coming to a meeting, his ene- to frighten me.
mies decided to try intimidation from within. Then it was, when the wall was built and I
They hired a false prophet (v.12),Shemaiah,to 7 had hung the doors, when the gatekeepers,
lure Nehemiah into the Holy Place in the tem- the singers, and the Levites had been appoint-
ple for refuge from a murder plot.To enter and ed, that I gave the charge of Jerusalem to my
2
shut himself in the Holy Place would have brother Hanani, and Hananiah the leader of
been a desecration of the house of God and the citadel, for he was a faithful man and
would have caused people to question his feared God more than many.
reverence for God. Shemaiah was the son of a 3 And I said to them, “Do not let the gates of
priest who was an intimate friend of Nehemiah.
This plan would give them grounds to raise an Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot; and
evil report against Nehemiah, who was not a while they stand guard, let them shut and bar
priest and had no right to go into the Holy the doors; and appoint guards from among the
Place (6:13). It could also make the people inhabitants of Jerusalem, one at his watch sta-
question his courage (v. 11). tion and another in front of his own house.”
4 Now the city was large and spacious, but the
people in it were few, and the houses were not
11 And I said, “Should such a man as I flee?
5
And who is there such as I who would go into rebuilt. Then my God put it into my heart to
the temple to save his life? I will not go in!” gather the nobles, the rulers, and the people,
Then I perceived that God had not sent him
12 that they might be registered by genealogy.
at all, but that he pronounced this prophecy And I found a register of the genealogy of those
against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had who had come up in the first return, and found
hired him. For this reason he was hired, that written in it:
13
I should be afraid and act that way and sin, so 6 These are the people of the province
that they might have cause for an evil report, who came back from the captivity, of
that they might reproach me. those who had been carried away,
14 My God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of
according to these their works, and the proph- Babylon had carried away, and who
etess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who returned to Jerusalem and Judah,
would have made me afraid. everyone to his city.
15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth
day of Elul, in fifty-two days. And it happened, 7 Those who came with Zerubbabel
16
when all our enemies heard of it, and all the were Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah,
nations around us saw these things, that they Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai,
were very disheartened in their own eyes; for Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum,
they perceived that this work was done by our and Baanah.
God.
The number of the men of the people of
Israel: the sons of Parosh, two thousand
8
one hundred and seventy-two;
9 the sons of Shephatiah, three hundred
and seventy-two;
6:16 this work was done by our God. While
10 the sons of Arah, six hundred and
modern readers might be tempted to exalt
the leadership qualities which brought the fifty-two;
11
work to completion, Nehemiah’s conclusion the sons of Pahath-Moab, of the sons
was seen through the eyes of his enemies, i.e., of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand eight
God works through faithful people, but it is hundred and eighteen;
12 the sons of Elam, one thousand two
God who works.
hundred and fifty-four;
13 the sons of Zattu, eight hundred and
forty-five;
17 Also in those days the nobles of Judah sent 14 the sons of Zaccai, seven hundred and
many letters to Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah sixty;
18
came to them. For many in Judah were 15 the sons of Binnui, six hundred and
pledged to him, because he was the son-in-law forty-eight;
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