Nehemiah 2 · a question people ask
Wasn't it harsh to tell them, "you have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem"?
The chapter gives the words and the situation. The three men "ridiculed us and despised us, and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?”" (2:19). Nehemiah's answer has two halves: "The God of heaven will prosper us. Therefore we, his servants, will arise and build" (2:20), and "but you have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem" (2:20). The first half is about God and the builders; the second is about Jerusalem and the three men. Earlier, when others said, "Let us build with you" (Ezra 4:2), Zerubbabel, Jeshua and the heads of fathers' households had answered, "You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God" (Ezra 4:3). The chapter doesn't comment on Nehemiah's words or explain further why he said them, and this study doesn't either. The rest of the book shows how the three men went on (e.g. 4:1-3, 6:1-2).
The verses
“But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite servant, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they ridiculed us and despised us, and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?” Then I answered them, and said to them, “The God of heaven will prosper us. Therefore we, his servants, will arise and build; but you have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem.””
“they came near to Zerubbabel, and to the heads of fathers’ households, and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do; and we have been sacrificing to him since the days of Esar Haddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.” But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ households of Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves together will build to the LORD, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.””
“But when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry, and was very indignant, and mocked the Jews. He spoke before his brothers and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, since they are burned?” Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, “What they are building, if a fox climbed up it, he would break down their stone wall.””
“Now when it was reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arabian, and to the rest of our enemies that I had built the wall, and that there was no breach left in it (though even to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come! Let’s meet together in the villages in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to harm me.”