Commentaria in II Esdrae (Nehemiam)
Chapter 4. Synopsis of the Chapter
The Jews build with one hand, and with the other hold a sword, to repel the Samaritans who attack them; wherefore, Nehemias urging and praying, the building of the walls and gates is completed.
1. Now it came to pass, when Sanaballat heard that we were building the wall, that he was angry exceedingly: and being moved, he scoffed at the Jews, 2. and said before his brethren, and the multitude of the Samaritans: What do these feeble Jews? Will the nations suffer them? Will they sacrifice, and finish in one day? Can they build up stones out of the heaps of dust, that have been burnt? 3. And Tobias the Ammonite, who was next to him, said: Let them build: if a fox go up, he will leap over their stone wall. 4. Hear, O our God, for we are become a despising: turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them up to be despised in a land of captivity, 5. Cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from thy face, because they have mocked the builders. 6. So we built the wall, and joined it all together unto half the height thereof: and the heart of the people was stirred up to work. 7. But it came to pass, when Sanaballat, and Tobias, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Azotians heard that the wall of Jerusalem was closed up, and that the breaches began to be stopped, they were very angry. 8. And they all gathered together, to come and fight against Jerusalem, and to lay snares. 9. And we prayed to our God, and set guards upon the wall day and night against them. 10. And Judas said: The strength of the bearer is weakened, and the rubbish is great, and we shall not be able to build the wall. 11. And our enemies said: Let them not know, nor be aware, till we come into the midst of them, and kill them, and cause the work to cease. 12. And it came to pass, that when the Jews who dwelt near them came, and told us ten times, from all places from whence they came to us, 13. I set in the place behind the wall in a circuit the people in order with their swords, and spears, and bows. 14. And I looked, and rose up: and said to the principal men, and to the magistrates, and to the rest of the common people: Be not afraid of their face. Remember the great and terrible Lord, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, and your wives, and your houses. 15. And it came to pass, when our enemies heard that it was told us, God brought their counsel to nought. And we returned all of us to the walls, every one to his work. 16. And it came to pass from that day, that half of their young men did the work, and half of them were ready for war, with spears, and shields, and bows, and coats of mail, and the rulers were behind them in every house of Juda, 17. of them that built on the wall, and that carried burdens, and that laid on; with one of his hands he did the work, and with the other held a sword. 18. For every one of the builders was girded with a sword about his reins. And they built, and sounded with a trumpet by me. 19. And I said to the nobles, and to the magistrates, and to the rest of the common people: The work is great and wide, and we are separated upon the wall afar from one another: 20. in what place soever you shall hear the sound of the trumpet, run in thither to us: our God will fight for us. 21. And let us ourselves be doing the work; and let half of us hold the spears, from the rising of the dawn till the stars come out. 22. At that time also I said to the people: Let every one with his servant abide in the midst of Jerusalem, and let us take turns by night and day to work. 23. But neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the guards that were behind me, put off our garments: every one was stripped only for baptism.
2. Will the nations suffer them?—as if to say: Shall we, the neighbours of the Jews, who are so many and so strong a people, allow the Jews to build their Jerusalem, from which they may afterwards attack and harass us as they did of old? As if to say: By no means; we must in no way permit this, that they should found this citadel and lay it upon our shoulders.
Will they sacrifice, and finish in one day?—as if to say: Do they think they can begin in one day, that is, in a very short time, the building of so great a city (which was done by sacrificing and dedicating the walls, and then by feasting joyfully), and at the same time finish it? As if to say: Not at all; for we shall meet them in good time, and throw them into confusion, and by force compel them to cease from the building.
Can they build up stones out of the heaps of dust, that have been burnt?—The Hebrew for “build up” is “bring to life,” the Septuagint “heal”; as if to say: Will the Jews be able to restore bricks and stones burnt by the Chaldeans and reduced to ashes, and give back to them their former solidity, strength and usefulness as stones and bricks, so as to rebuild walls out of them? As if to say: The Jews are attempting a most difficult thing, indeed an impossible building.
3. If a fox go up, he will leap over their stone wall.—The Hebrew: a fox will go up and break down their stone wall. It is a sarcasm or hostile mockery, as if to say: Let the Jews do as they will, labour and sweat as much as they wish, the wall they raise will be so frail and low that a fox may leap over it, or even break it down. So Cajetan.
5. Cover not their iniquity—by forgetfulness and impunity, as if to say: Remember, O Lord, these injuries and scoffings with which our enemies unjustly harass us, and restrain and punish them. For when God spares, he is said to cover sins; when he does not spare but punishes, he is said to uncover them, to look upon them and set them before his eyes. Hence St. Stephen, praying for the Jews, says: “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge,” Acts, chapter 7. Therefore Nehemias does not pray that God should not forgive the fault of the penitent; for to ask that would be impious and diabolical; but that he should not remit the punishment to the impenitent and those who persist in their fault.
10. And Judas said—that is, the Jews said, who, weary with labour and frightened by the threats of the enemy, began to flag in the work and to murmur against Nehemias, who was urging it on.
The strength of the bearer is weakened—that is, the shoulders and hands of the workmen and carriers, who bore stones, timber, water and lime, are so weakened by so great, constant and long labour that they can scarcely carry them any more.
And the rubbish is great—as if to say: There is too much lime, earth, or, as the Hebrew and Greek have it, dust, worked and mingled together. Or more simply, as if to say: in the digging of the earth and the laying of the foundations of the walls, there remains too much rubble of earth and stones to be cleared away for it to be dug out and carried off by so few workmen and carriers. Yet the gentleness of Nehemias in bearing with them, and his constancy in encouraging them, overcame this complaint of his people as well.
12. And told us ten times—that is, they said and told us many times of the enemy’s snares, and of their hidden assaults which threatened:) From all places—as if to say: From every side informers came telling the same thing, namely that the enemy were thinking of attacking us by ambush. Therefore Nehemias, arming his men and placing them in battle line, forestalled, scattered and turned aside the snares of the enemy.
17. Of them that built, etc. (understand: every one)
With one of his hands he did the work, and with the other held a sword—that the enemy, suddenly rushing out from ambush, he might repel. Note here the prudence, no less than the constancy and ardour, of the people in building. So of old the Spaniards, constantly fighting with the Saracens who occupied Spain, when they prayed or did anything else, kept a sword at hand to drive back those who attacked them; whence the custom still flourishes that even now the peasants in Spain go about with swords, indeed do not plough unless girded with a sword. So even now the Hungarians leap from the plough to arms, when the neighbouring Turks suddenly invade them.
For the allegory and tropology see Bede, who says: “For the builders are girded with a sword about the reins, when those who apply themselves to good works, and take care to order those committed to them by rule and reason (for this is to place the living stones in the building of the Church in fitting order), strive to restrain the loose edge of luxury in themselves with the word of God.” Therefore, while we apply ourselves to reason, to the work of charity, to preaching and other pious acts of virtue, by which we build up in the soul the spiritual edifice of merits, let us hold in one hand the sword of mortification, with which we may bravely repel, indeed cut off from ourselves, the temptations of the flesh and the suggestions of the devil and the world, to vainglory, pride, envy, gluttony, lust, etc. These are the “armour of justice” with which the Apostle fortifies every believer “on the right hand and on the left,” 2 Corinthians 6:7, and more fully Ephesians 6:13: “Put on,” he says, “the armour of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and stand in all things perfect.” Then he assigns the whole panoply with which he arms the soldier of Christ from head to heel, namely the girdle of truth, the breastplate of justice, the shoe of the preparation of the Gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. See what is said there.
21. Till the stars come out—namely until night, when the stars seem to come forth as it were from their dens or chambers, in which they lay hidden all day while the sun shone, to keep their night watches. Scripture speaks according to the perception of the common people, who think that the stars are hidden by day in their lairs, from which they come out by night to perform their station, as it were of a camp, until dawn, when they seek their hiding places again, and the Morning Star “comes out last of the watch.” So Vatablus.
22. Let every one with his servant (that is, his attendant or servant) abide (by night also) in the midst of Jerusalem—and not go elsewhere, so that if the enemy attack us by night, we may all together meet and resist them, and let us take turns by night and day to work.—The Hebrew and the Septuagint: And let the night be a watch for us and the day a work. Vatablus says clearly: Let each with his servant spend the night in the midst of Jerusalem, that by night we may have watches, and by day work, namely that by night they may guard us, and by day work upon the wall. Nehemias therefore orders that all spend the night in the city with their servants, and that some of them be appointed to keep watch by turns at night, while the rest sleep, but nearly dressed, so that if the watchmen give the sign of an approaching enemy, they may at once seize their arms and meet them; and by day let them so divide the tasks that one part works while the other, armed with spears, stands by to protect the workers.
23. But neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, and the guards that were behind me, put off our garments—that I, as a leader, might teach the other citizens and soldiers to do the same, not so much by word and command as by deed and example, namely that they should not put off their garments and arms by night, according to that saying of the leader in Livy, book 7: “I wish you, soldiers, to follow my deeds, not my words; and to seek from me not discipline only, but example also.” This Cato did, of whom Lucan, book 9, says:
He himself, bearing arms with his own hand, goes before the panting soldiers on foot: he shows how to bear toil, he does not merely teach it.
In like manner, when I was living in Belgium, the Marquis Spinola, besieging Ostend for two years, for seven whole months never took off his clothes when sleeping, and by this vigilance he at length took the city, situated at the mouth of the sea and therefore almost impregnable, and triumphed over it with great glory to his name.
Every one was stripped only for baptism.—The Hebrew: the sending away or laying down of each one’s (the “his” is redundant, in the Hebrew manner)—understand, of the garments of which mention was made before—at the waters, namely baptismal, that is, purificatory waters, when he wished, namely, to wash his body and cleanse himself. For the Jews, both on account of legal uncleanness, which they easily contracted by touching a thing legally unclean, for example by conversation with Gentiles, and on account of heat and the sweat and stench it brought, and on account of filth contracted from other sources (whence Ammianus, book 22, and Martial, book 4, epigram 4, call the Jews stinking), frequently washed the whole body, and even their garments and beds. See what is said on Mark 7:3.