He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would sin by doing as he suggested, so they could give me a bad name in order to discredit me.
The Jews' enemies leave no stone unturned, no way untried, to take Nehemiah off from building the wall about Jerusalem. In order to this they had tried to fetch him into the country to them, but in vain; now they try to drive him into the temple for his own safety; let him be any where but at his work.
Commenting on Nehemiah 6:10-14
Therefore was he hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin,.... By distrusting the power and providence of God to protect him, and by going into such a part of the temple, which he, being no priest, had no right to go into: and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me; as a rebel and...
Neh 6:13-14 “On this account was he hired that I might be afraid, and do so; and if I had sinned (by entering the holy place), it (my sin) would have been to them for an evil report, that they might defame me.” The use of למאן before two sentences, the second of which expresses the purpose of the first, is peculiar: for this purpose...
Commenting on Nehemiah 6:13-14