Глава 6

1–14. The plots of the enemies against Nehemiah and their failure. 15–16. The end of the Jerusalem wall and the impression it made on the neighbors. 17–19. Relation to Nehemiah by Tobias and some of the Jerusalem nobility. Nehemiah 6:1. When it came to the ears of Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arabian and our other enemies that I had rebuilt the wall, and there was no damage left in it - however, until that time I had not yet put doors in the gates - About those named in Art. 1 persons see approx. j (Neh. 2:10, 19). “And our other enemies”: probably the Azotians and other inhabitants of the Philistine coast. Nehemiah 6:2. Then Sanballat and Geshem sent to me to say: Come, and let us meet in one of the villages on the plain of Ono. They were planning to do me harm. Perhaps, in order to clarify the rumors, Sanballat and Geshem invite Nehemiah to meet in one of the villages (bakephirim) on the Ono plain. Kephirim, standing with a member, is taken by some exegetes to be its own name and is identified with Kephira, mentioned in (1 Ezra 2:25), which served as a border point of the then Jewish region. Robinson (N. bibl. Forsch. 190) points out the ruins of Kefira at a distance of 3 hours from Gibeon. According to (1 Chron. 8:12; Neh. 11:35), the plain of Ono lay near Lydda and therefore can be identified with the present Kefr-An (or K.-Andi), located at a distance of two hours from Lydda and 40 ver. to the north-west from Jerusalem. Nehemiah 6:3. But I sent ambassadors to them to say: I am busy with a big task, I cannot go down; the matter would stop if I left him and came down to you. Nehemiah 6:4. They sent me the same invitation four times, and I answered them the same. The reason for Nehemiah’s refusal to follow the invitation of the enemies, repeated four times, was not only the reluctance to slow down the construction by his absence, as indicated in Art. 3, but also fear of insidious plans on the part of enemies. Nehemiah 6:5. Then Sanballat sent his servant to me for the fifth time, who had an open letter in his hand. For the fifth time, Sanballat sent a servant to Jerusalem with an open letter in his hands. Obviously, Sanballat wanted the accusations contained in the letter to be known to everyone in Jerusalem and that these accusations would either frighten him into stopping the construction of the wall (v. 9), or prompt Nehemiah to go to the plain of Ono for explanations. Neh.6:6. It was written in it: a rumor is circulating among the nations, and Geshem says that you and the Jews are planning to fall away, for which reason you are building a wall and want to be their king, according to the same rumors; Neh.6:7. and you appointed prophets so that they would proclaim about you in Jerusalem and say: King of the Jews! And such speeches will reach the king. So come and let’s consult together. “There are rumors among the peoples” - of course, among the neighboring peoples. “And Geshem saith”: in Heb. in the text, instead of Geshem, Gashmu is read, which, without a doubt, is the same as Geshem. Obviously, Geshem is presented as a particularly authoritative person. Nehemiah 6:8. But I sent to him to say: nothing like what you are talking about happened; you made it up with your mind. Nehemiah 6:9. For they all frightened us, thinking: their hands will give up on this work, and it will not take place; but I strengthened my hands all the more. Sanballat's plans, as seen in v. 8–9, not only did not achieve their goal - to stop the construction of the walls, but, on the contrary, gave more energy to Nehemiah ("I have strengthened my hands the more"). Nehemiah 6:10. I came to the house of Shemaiah, the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, and he locked himself and said: Let us go to the house of God, inside the church, and lock the doors of the church behind us, because they will come to kill you, and they will come to kill you in the night. After unsuccessful attempts to destroy Nehemiah, Sanballat decided to use cunning to induce him to break the law and thereby undermine his authority among the people. For this he took advantage of the assistance of the prophet Shemaiah, who, apparently, was one of the strongest (v. 14) opponents of Nehemiah. When Nehemiah entered the house of Shemaiah, the latter, in the name of Jehovah, announced to Nehemiah that that night the enemies intended to kill Nehemiah. To avoid danger, Shemaiah invited Nehemiah to go with him to the church and lock himself there. By agreeing to this proposal, Nehemiah, on the one hand, would have shown fear of his enemies, and on the other, would have violated the provisions of the law, since, being a layman, he had no right to enter the church. Either would have diminished Nehemiah's authority in the eyes of the people. - “And he locked himself in”, Heb. vehu azur, “and it was concluded,” is a remark whose exact meaning is difficult to determine. Berto understands this remark to mean that Shemaiah was in a state of inspiration; Ewald and Rawlinson - that Shemaiah was in a state of uncleanness. According to Keil, Shemaiah's imprisonment had a symbolic meaning - it indicated what Nehemiah was supposed to do. But it is easier to understand the expression vehu azar in the sense that Shemaiah shied away from public activities, and Nehemiah’s visit was caused by a desire to find out the reason for this evasion. Nehemiah 6:11. But I said: can a man like me run? Can someone like me enter the church and stay alive? I won't go. Nehemiah 6:12. I knew that it was not God who sent him, although he had spoken to me prophetically, but that Tobiah and Sanballat had bribed him. Nehemiah 6:13. For this purpose he was bribed, so that I would be afraid and do so and sin, and so that they would have a bad opinion of me and persecute me for this with reproaches. Nehemiah, as seen in v. 11, understood the hidden purpose of Shemaiah’s proposal and therefore refused him, making sure that Shemaiah was bribed by his enemies. Nehemiah 6:14. Remember, my God, Tobiah and Sanballat for these deeds, as well as the prophetess Noadiah and the other prophets who wanted to frighten me! As can be seen from the comparison of Art. 7 and 14, among the prophets, as well as among all the people, there were two directions: some of the prophets supported Nehemiah, while others, including Shemaiah and the prophetess Noadiah, were against isolation from their neighbors and reform in a strictly legal spirit. These two directions in Judaism, beginning from the time of Nehemiah, were preserved in subsequent history (see about this M. Posnov, Judaism. To characterize the internal life of the Jewish people in the post-exilic period. Kiev, 1906. pp. 5–104). Nehemiah 6:15. The wall was completed on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. The year of completion of the wall of Jerusalem is not given, probably because it is assumed to be known from earlier indications (cf. Neh. 1:1, 2:1, 5:14, 12:26). This was the 20th year of Artaxerxes, and it was probably Artaxerxes Longimanus (cf. note to (1 Ezra 7:1) or 445 (444) BC. Elul was the 12th month of the year. -In article 15, attention is drawn to the fact that a too short period of time is indicated for the construction of the wall (52 days). Due to the shortness of the period, and also the evidence of I. Flavius (Jude. Ancient XI, 5, 7)), that the construction of the wall lasted 2 years and 4 months, some exegetes are inclined to see in Art. 15th damage to the text. But with the general course of the story about the construction of the wall, the indication of Art. The 15th is quite harmonious for a short period of time. The story notes that the construction was carried out at an accelerated pace, that there were many builders and they worked with jealousy. In addition, it is clear from the story that the wall was not actually rebuilt, but was only repaired, and for some parts of the wall (cf. Neh. 3:13–15) even repairs were not required. According to Rissel's calculations, out of 12,978 eng. no more than 8 thousand feet of the wall were repaired. As can be seen from Chapter. 3, this space was divided into 40 compartments, an average of 200 pounds. for each. With a significant number of workers and with the work being made easier by the fact that the building material was at hand, since the stones of the destroyed wall were not taken away, it is not surprising that the wall was completed in 52 days. The walls of Athens under Themistocles and the walls of Alexandria under Alexander the Great were built even faster. Nehemiah 6:16. When all our enemies heard about this, and all the nations around us saw it, then they fell greatly in their eyes and knew that this deed was done by our God. The impression made on neighbors by the completion of the walls, in Greek. and glory texts is significantly strengthened: “and all the nations around us were afraid, and the fear of attack was great before their eyes.”). In the first sentence, apparently, instead of Heb. raah (to see) LXX read jareh (to be afraid), and in the second they freely conveyed a rare turn of phrase found in the original. Nehemiah 6:17. Moreover, in those days the noblest Jews wrote many letters, which were sent to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them. Nehemiah 6:18. For many in Judah were in a sworn covenant with him, because he was the son-in-law of Shechaniah the son of Arach, and his son Johanan took in marriage the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah. In the last verses of Chapter VI. Several remarks are made about Nehemiah's attitude towards Tobias. Probably, Tobias, who, like his son Jochanan, bore a purely Israeli name, by his origin belonged to one of the tribes of the kingdom of Israel and, perhaps, defended precisely the interests of the inhabitants of this kingdom who survived in Palestine. He maintained frequent communication with Jerusalem, since many in Judah “were in a sworn covenant with him” (v. 18). From the last remark we can conclude that when entering into marriages, relatives swore an oath to support each other. – The names of Arak and Meshullam, with whose houses Tobiah was related, are mentioned in (1 Ezra 2:5; Nehemiah 3:4, 30). It is believed that Tobiah's father-in-law Shechaniah and Johanan's father-in-law Meshullam belonged to the descendants of Zerubbabel (1 Chron. 3:19–21). As can be seen from (Nehemiah 13:4), Tobiah was also a relative of the high priest Eliashib. Nehemiah 6:19. They even spoke about his kindness in front of me, and my words were transferred to him. Tobiah sent letters to frighten me. “They even spoke about his kindness in front of me,” apparently with the aim of bringing Nehemiah closer to Tobias. Since the meaning of Art. 19 is not entirely clear and the parallelism in it is not maintained, then, not without reason, some exegetes (Hein, Bertholet) suspect corruption in the text in this case. You might be interested in: