After I had made an inspection, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”
We have here, I. The conspiracy which the Jews' enemies formed against them, to stay the building by slaying the builders. The conspirators were not only Sanballat and Tobiah, but other neighbouring people whom they had drawn into the plot.
Commenting on Nehemiah 4:7-15
And I looked,.... Took a view of the people, and observed that they were in their proper place, and sufficiently armed, and also whether the enemy was coming: and rose up and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people; who were under their nobles and rulers, as their captains and commanders: be not ye afraid of them...
HE SETS A WATCH. (Neh. 4:7-23) But . . . when Sanballat . . . heard that the walls . . . were made up, and . . . the breaches . . . stopped--The rapid progress of the fortifications, despite all their predictions to the contrary, goaded the Samaritans to frenzy.
Commenting on Nehemiah 4:7-23