C. NEHEMIAH'S ARRIVAL IN JERUSALEM
Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent with me captains of the army and horsemen. So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.
And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God put into my heart to do for Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon. And I went out by night by the valley gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. And the rulers knew not whither I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work.
D. THE BEGINNING OF THE WORK
Then said I unto them, "Ye see the evil case that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach." And I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also of the king's words that he had spoken unto me.
And they said, "Let us rise up and build." So they strengthened their hands for the good work.
§91. Nehemiah's Difficulties (Neh. 4:1-4, 6-9, 16-20; 6:1-9)
A. SCORNFUL JEALOUSY OF THE ENEMIES
But it came to pass that, when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews. And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, "What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, seeing they are burned?"
Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, "Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall break down their stone wall."