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Royalty and Ruin
Building With One Hand, Fighting With the Other
The enemies of Israel were filled with rage. They had not dared
use violence, for they knew of the king’s orders and feared that
actively opposing Nehemiah might bring on them the monarch’s
displeasure. But now they themselves became guilty of the crime of
which they had accused Nehemiah. “All of them conspired together
to come and attack Jerusalem.” At the same time some of the leading
Jews turned against the project and tried to discourage Nehemiah.
“The strength of the laborers is failing, and there is so much rubbish
that we are not able to build the wall.”
Discouragement came from still another source. “The Jews who
dwelt near them,” taking no part in the work, repeated the reports
of their enemies to create discontent. But ridicule and threats only
inspired Nehemiah to greater watchfulness. His courage remained
high. “We made our prayer to our God,” he declares, “and set a
watch against them day and night.” “Therefore I positioned men
behind the lower parts of the wall, at the openings; and I set the
people according to their families, with their swords, their spears,
and their bows. And I ... said to the nobles, to the leaders, and to
the rest of the people, ‘Do not be afraid of them. Remember the
Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons,
your daughters, your wives, and your houses.’”
“All of us returned to the wall, everyone to his work. So it was,
from that time on, that half of my servants worked on construction,
while the other half held the spears, the shields, the bows, and wore
armor. ... Those who carried burdens loaded themselves so that
with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held
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a weapon.”
Priests were stationed on different parts of the wall, bearing the
sacred trumpets. They sounded the alarm if danger approached any
part of the wall. “So we labored in the work, and half of the men
held the spears from daybreak until the stars appeared.”
Nehemiah now required those who had been living outside
Jerusalem to camp within the walls, to guard the work and to be
ready for duty in the morning. This would prevent the enemy from
attacking the workmen as they went to and from their homes. Not