Commentaria in II Esdrae (Nehemiam)
Chapter 6. Synopsis of the Chapter
The enemies of the Jews lay snares for Nehemias; next they threaten an accusation that he aims at the kingdom; third, they send false prophets against him; fourth, they suborn traitors: but all this the prudence and greatness of mind of Nehemias scattered.
1. Now it came to pass, when Sanaballat, and Tobias, and Gossem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall, and that there was no breach left in it (though until that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), 2. Sanaballat and Gossem sent to me, saying: Come, and let us make a league together in the villages, in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief. 3. So I sent messengers to them, saying: I am doing a great work, and cannot come down, lest it be neglected when I come and go down to you. 4. And they sent to me according to this word four times: and I answered them after the same manner. 5. And Sanaballat sent his servant to me the fifth time according to the former word, and he had a letter in his hand written in this manner: 6. It is heard among the nations, and Gossem hath said it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel, and therefore thou buildest the wall, and wouldest raise thyself up to be king over them: for which cause, 7. thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee in Jerusalem, saying: There is a king in Juda. The king will hear of these words: therefore come now, that we may take counsel together. 8. And I sent to them, saying: There is no such thing done as thou sayest, for thou speakest: for out of thy own heart thou inventest these things. 9. For all these made us afraid, thinking that our hands would cease from the work, and we should rest. Wherefore I strengthened my hands the more: 10. and I went into the house of Semaia the son of Dalaia the son of Metabeel privately. And he said: Let us treat together in the house of God, in the midst of the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to kill thee, and will come in the night to slay thee. 11. And I said: Shall such a man as I flee? And who, being such as I, shall go into the temple, and live? I will not go in. 12. And I understood that God had not sent him, but that he had spoken to me as a prophet, and that Tobias and Sanaballat had hired him. 13. For he had taken money, that I might be afraid, and so do, and sin, and they might have matter for an evil report, to reproach me. 14. Remember me, O Lord, for Tobias and Sanaballat, according to their works of this kind: and Noadia the prophet also, and the rest of the prophets that put me in fear. 15. And the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. 16. And it came to pass, when all our enemies heard it, that all the nations which were round about us were afraid, and they fell down within themselves, and knew that this work was done of God. 17. Moreover in those days many letters of the nobles of the Jews were sent to Tobias, and came from Tobias to them. 18. For there were many in Judea that had sworn to him, because he was son-in-law to Sechenias the son of Area, and Johanan his son had taken the daughter of Mosollam the son of Barachias; 19. and they praised him also before me, and reported my words to him: and Tobias sent letters to put me in fear.
2. Let us make a league together in the villages.—So the Septuagint and Vatablus also. But Pagninus retains the Hebrew name as if a proper name, and renders it in Kephirim. Both are true, because Kephirim was the name of a place so called from the abundance of villas and villages. In the plain of Ono.—This plain was near the Jordan in the tribe of Benjamin, and was commonly called the “Valley of the craftsmen.” So Adrichomius, and this is sufficiently clear
That they might do me mischief—that they might seize or kill me.
6. And wouldest raise thyself up to be king over them—namely that thou, O Nehemias, wishest to exalt thyself over them and be set up as king. This was their accusation and calumny.
7. And thou hast appointed prophets to preach of thee in Jerusalem, saying: There is a king in Juda.—Take “prophets” in the proper sense. For they accuse Nehemias of wishing to make himself king, and therefore of suborning prophets to foretell to the people that God wills this very thing, namely that Juda, which for so many years has lacked kings, should now have its own king restored. So Sanchez. Others, however, understand by “prophets” heralds, who should proclaim Nehemias king through the streets.
10. And I went into the house of Semaia the son of Dalaia the son of Metabeel privately.—Semaia was a priest of the village of Dalaia, which in order was the twenty-third, as is clear from 1 Paralipomenon 24:18, and he stayed at home as one given to study and prayer. Hence Sanaballat corrupted him with money, so that as a religious man, indeed a prophet, as is clear from verse 12, he should summon Nehemias to him, and as if prophesying should instil into him fear of the enemy, and therefore counsel flight, and this to the end that he might brand Nehemias with the disgrace of cowardice, and make him contemptible to the people; indeed that with Nehemias fearing and fleeing, the people also might fear and flee. This is clear from what follows.
11. And I said: Shall such a man as I (of great soul and leader of the people) flee?—As if to say: This shameful flight does not become my magnanimity nor my dignity. For if the leader flees, the whole people will flee.
And who, being such as I (like me, magnanimous and a prince), shall go into the temple, and live?—Vatablus has, that he may live, as if to say: Not even to save my life does it become me to flee to the temple; for it is better to die generously than to flee shamefully and bring a stain upon one’s glory, as Judas Machabeus said. Or and live, as if to say: If I flee to the temple, I shall not live, but shall be killed by the people as a coward and fugitive, who had rashly thrown them into this danger of the enemy, and as one conscious of some crime. So Sanchez.
12. And I understood—either by God’s revelation, or by the readiness and sagacity of my mind from the words and gestures of Semaia, that he was boasting himself to be a prophet, and as such was prophesying the enemy’s threats, when in truth he was a false prophet suborned for money by Sanaballat, in order that by terrifying me he might make me cheap and hateful to the people.
13. That I might be afraid (by a feigned oracle of imminent danger) and do (what he himself advised, namely flee into the temple like a coward; or, as one conscious of some crime, take refuge in the temple as in an asylum) and sin—both against God by distrust, and against myself by a faint-hearted flight, and against the people, by striking them with terror and driving them to flight by my flight.
14. Remember me, O Lord, for Tobias and Sanaballat, according to their works of this kind—that thou mayest deliver me from them and chastise them, so that either they themselves, or others by their example and chastisement, may become wise, and learn not to harass upright men nor lay snares for them.
And Noadia the prophet.—In Hebrew, the prophetess (for she was a woman), that is, a false prophetess corrupted by money by Sanaballat, who cast similar threats and fears upon me. Repeat: “Remember, O Lord, to chastise her as she deserves and by chastising amend her, or others by her example.” Nehemias said this from just sorrow and zeal, not of private vengeance but of public justice.
15. And the wall was finished on the 25th day of the month Elul (the sixth, which corresponds partly to our August, partly to September) in 52 days.—Some begin these 52 days not from the beginning of the building, but from these threats and snares of Sanaballat directed against Nehemias; hence Josephus asserts that the building of the walls was completed in two years and three months, in the year 28 of Xerxes, that is, Artaxerxes. Josephus is followed by the scholastic historians, Cajetan, Vatablus and Mariana. It is truer that the 52 days are to be reckoned from the beginning of the building, as Lyranus, Dionysius, Villalpandus and Sanchez hold. For if the building of the walls had lasted two years, Sanaballat, by stirring up the neighbouring nations, would certainly have raised an army and hindered it. Nehemias therefore pressed on, and urged the work to be finished at once. And this could be done in 52 days, both because all applied themselves to the work strenuously and ardently, and because the work was distributed in order to each man, no one excepted; and because the foundations of the walls, which the Chaldeans had not been able to destroy, remained, and in many places even the walls were whole. For the Chaldeans had only destroyed the walls in various places, that is, broken them through, as is clear from 4 Kings, last chapter, verses 4 and 10. The gates also had not been destroyed, but their doors burned, as is clear from 1 Esdras 1:3; so only the doors needed restoring. Besides this, they built not with hewn and polished stone, but with rough and unpolished stone, indeed with stones which they found in the ruins and rubble of the old walls. Finally God prospered them, so that they finished the walls in the space of 52 days. So Alexander the Great raised the walls of the new Alexandria on the Tanais, sixty stadia in length, in the space of 17 days, as Quintus Curtius has it; or twenty, as Arrian relates. So today the Dutch, besieging great cities, surround them in the space of twenty days on every side with a rampart so that they cannot be relieved. For after the Roman manner the soldiers each carry with their arms spades or trowels to dig or build. And so many hands joined together at once accomplish an immense work.
16. That all the nations might fear—us, and our building, which they saw so quickly finished, so that they themselves confessed this to be the work of God rather than of men.
17. Many letters of the nobles of the Jews were sent to Tobias.— These were traitors to their country, who had conspired with the enemy against Nehemias, and wrote to them the deeds and counsels of Nehemias, that they might disturb them. He adds the cause:
18. For there were many in Juda that had sworn to him—as if to say: Many of the Jews had sworn to Tobias, and had pledged their faith to him by oath, that they would be friends and faithful to him, and had therefore conspired with him against me and their country.
Because (Tobias) was son-in-law to Sechenias—as if to say: The cause why many of the Jews favoured Tobias, an enemy of the Jews, was that they had contracted kinship with him and his allies by mutual marriages. For and Johanan his son (of Tobias) had taken the daughter of Mosollam the son of Barachias—who were Jews and nobles of the Jews.
19. And they praised him (Tobias) also before me.—The Hebrew: yea, they proclaimed before me his goodness (or good deeds or munificence). They allude to the name Tobias, which in Hebrew signifies the goodness of God, as if to say: He is truly Tobias according to his name, who shows himself good and beneficent to all. So Vatablus. This was the height of the Jews’ iniquity, and the height of the wrong and affliction to Nehemias, namely the betrayal by his own citizens, which he nevertheless overcame by dissembling, patience, counsel and constancy.