Day #270

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Nehemiah 6-7 - Audio
Nehemiah 6-7 - Reading

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Nehemiah 6-7

Chapter 6 – This is a conspiracy against Nehemiah, but the wall is finished.

v. 1 – Sanballat the Horonite is known from other sources to have been the governor of Samaria. Tobiah is an Ammonite who belongs to a people that was one of Israel’s historic enemies. Geshem the Arab may have been from Kedar. Kedarites had settled close to Judah.

v. 3 – Nehemiah would not divert time and effort from God’s work for discussions with his enemies that he knew would be fruitless and probably dangerous to him.

v. 4 – Nehemiah follows diplomatic protocol in the exchange of letters.

v. 5-7 – The open letter intended to exert extra pressure on Nehemiah, perhaps by creating fear within his own community that his actions could lead to disaster. “There is a king in Judah” – if this were true it would certainly inflame the Persians. Sanballat portrays himself as loyal to Persia and also as the Jews friend, offering to diffuse the danger posed by these alleged rumors.

v. 12 – Shemaiah, who may have been a priest, was pretending to speak with prophetic authority, but Nehemiah sees that his prophecy was false.

v. 17 – It is ironic that Tobiah is highly considered among the Israelites. It is because of an alliance based on the marriages of Tobiah (an Ammonite) and his son into families of Jewish nobility. This perhaps explains Tobiah’s hostility to Nehemiah’s work.

Chapter 7 – Nehemiah lists those who return from exile during the time of Zerubbabel.

v. 1 – “gatekeepers, singers, Levites” – is a typical grouping of worship officials, so it is surprising to find them guarding the walls. Yet guarding the city was ultimately related to establishing the worship of God and His temple.

v. 2 – Hanani and Hananiah may have possibly replaced the rulers previously set in Jerusalem.

v. 6-73 – This is a list virtually identical to the one in Ezra 2. The purpose is not to give new information but to highlight Nehemiah’s next concern; to repopulate Jerusalem.