Nehemiah 5–6: The Enemy Within, the War of Nerves, and Fifty-Two Days

About that time there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.

Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous. We must get grain in order to eat and stay alive.”

Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our homes to get grain during the famine.”

Still others were saying, “We have borrowed money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. We and our children are just like our countrymen and their children, yet we are subjecting our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters are already enslaved, but we are powerless to redeem them because our fields and vineyards belong to others.”

When I heard their outcry and these complaints, I became extremely angry, and after serious thought I rebuked the nobles and officials, saying, “You are exacting usury from your own brothers!”

So I called a large assembly against them and said, “We have done our best to buy back our Jewish brothers who were sold to foreigners, but now you are selling your own brothers, that they may be sold back to us!”

But they remained silent, for they could find nothing to say.

So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our foreign enemies? I, as well as my brothers and my servants, have been lending the people money and grain. Please, let us stop this usury. Please restore to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves, and houses, along with the percentage of the money, grain, new wine, and oil that you have been assessing them.”

“We will restore it,” they replied, “and will require nothing more from them. We will do as you say.”

So I summoned the priests and required of the nobles and officials an oath that they would do what they had promised. I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “May God likewise shake out of his house and possession every man who does not keep this promise. May such a man be shaken out and have nothing!”

The whole assembly said, “Amen,” and they praised the LORD. And the people did as they had promised.

Furthermore, from the day King Artaxerxes appointed me to be their governor in the land of Judah, from his twentieth year until his thirty-second year (twelve years total), neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor.

The governors before me had heavily burdened the people, taking from them bread and wine plus forty shekels of silver. Their servants also oppressed the people, but I did not do this because of my fear of God. Instead, I devoted myself to the construction of the wall, and all my servants were gathered there for the work; we did not acquire any land.

There were 150 Jews and officials at my table, besides the guests from the surrounding nations. Each day one ox, six choice sheep, and some fowl were prepared for me, and once every ten days an abundance of all kinds of wine was provided. But I did not demand the food allotted to the governor, because the burden on the people was so heavy.

Remember me favorably, O my God, for all that I have done for this people.

When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left—though to that time I had not yet installed the doors in the gates— Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.”

But they were planning to harm me.

So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it to go down to you?”

Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave the same reply.

The fifth time, Sanballat sent me this same message by his young servant, who had in his hand an unsealed letter that read:

“It is reported among the nations—and Geshem agrees—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and this is why you are building the wall. According to these reports, you are to become their king, and you have even appointed prophets in Jerusalem to proclaim on your behalf: ‘There is a king in Judah.’ Soon these rumors will reach the ears of the king. So come, let us confer together.”

Then I sent him this reply: “There is nothing to these rumors you are spreading; you are inventing them in your own mind.”

For they were all trying to frighten us, saying, “Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will never be finished.”

But now, my God, strengthen my hands.

Later, I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his house. He said:

But I replied, “Should a man like me run away? Should one like me go into the temple to save his own life? I will not go!”

I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had uttered this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would sin by doing as he suggested, so they could give me a bad name in order to discredit me.

O my God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat for what they have done, and also Noadiah the prophetess and the other prophets who tried to intimidate me.

So the wall was completed in fifty-two days, on the twenty-fifth of Elul. When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and disheartened, for they realized that this task had been accomplished by our God.

Also in those days, the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came back to them. For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, since he was a son-in-law of Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah.

Moreover, these nobles kept reporting to me Tobiah’s good deeds, and they relayed my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.