Nehemiah 2:17–20

Nehemiah prepares to rebuild the walls

Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” 18 I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me.

They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work.

19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against the king?”

20 I answered them by saying, “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.”

As soon as the rebuilding began, however, Sanballat and Tobiah started their campaign to intimidate the builders. They were joined in this by Geshem the Arab. Like Sanballat and Tobiah, Geshem is mentioned in other surviving historical texts from this period. They refer to him as the ruler of Kedar. These three men are examples of historical characters in the Bible whose existences have recently been confirmed by other sources. While such outside sources do not “prove” the Bible is true, they bear witness that Scripture’s history is reliable and accurate. This is just what we can expect from God, whose “word is truth” (John 17:17).

The enemies’ attempt at intimidation was based on a two-pronged attack. First, they hoped that their ridicule of the Jews’ weakness would cause the Jews to despair of their ability to complete the project and give up before they even began. If this failed, the enemies hoped to plant doubts about Nehemiah’s intentions. If he was building the walls as the first step in a revolt against Persia, Nehemiah could well bring destruction on Israel, just as other leaders of Israel had done by revolting against Assyria and Babylon.

Nehemiah had an apt reply to both tactics. The Jews would succeed in spite of their weakness, because God would bless their efforts. They were not building the city to rebel against Persia but to honor God. Furthermore, Nehemiah reminded Sanballat and his allies that they would do well to mind their own business. They had no religious rights in Jerusalem, because they did not follow the true worship of the Lord. Nor did they have any political rights in Jerusalem, because the Persian king had assigned that authority to Nehemiah, not to them. After rejecting their taunts, Nehemiah and his followers were determined to get on with the work of rebuilding.

It is difficult to understand the descriptions of the rebuilding of Jerusalem in this and following chapters without some description of the terrain of Old Testament Jerusalem. The identification of some of the places mentioned is uncertain, but the map entitled “Nehemiah’s Jerusalem,” below, shows the most likely locations and will help you follow the descriptions in the text.

Ancient Jerusalem stood on three large hills. The smallest of these hills, Ophel, made up the southeast quarter of the city. This was the original city of David. Mount Moriah, where Solomon built the temple, formed the northeastern part of the city. After the time of Solomon the city spread westward onto the largest hill, which is now called Mount Zion.

Deep valleys surrounded the whole city. The Tyropoean Valley, separating Ophel from Mount Zion, divided Jerusalem down the middle.

It is likely that Nehemiah’s Jerusalem did not cover the entire area the city had occupied before its destruction. Rather, it was limited to Ophel and part of the temple mountain. Jerusalem had become a small city, covering only about 30 acres with room for about 5,000 inhabitants.

As the map indicates, the Valley Gate, where Nehemiah began his inspection, is on the west side of Ophel. He traveled down the Tyropoean Valley to the Dung Gate and Jackal Well at the southern tip of the city. The Jackal or Serpent Well may be the spring En Rogel mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament. For example, centuries before Nehemiah’s time, back in the days of Joshua, En Rogel was on the border between the tribes of Benjamin and Judah (Joshua 15:7; 18:16). The Fountain Gate and King’s Pool appear to be designations for the area around the pool that the New Testament calls the Pool of Siloam. At this place Jesus healed a blind man (John 9:1-11). The massive amount of rubble strewn down the slopes when the city was destroyed made Nehemiah’s night inspection extremely difficult. Finally he was able to make his way back to his starting point. It is not certain from the text whether he succeeded in getting all the way around the city or was forced to retrace his steps after getting only partway around. The latter seems more likely.

This section emphasizes the difficulties Nehemiah faced. Strong enemies threatened danger from without. The great devastation made the task of rebuilding immense. But with the help of God, Nehemiah completed the preparations for a successful project.