Nehemiah 4:2

And he said, before his brothers and a crowd of the Samaritans: “What are the foolish Jews doing? Can it be that the Gentiles will allow them? Will they sacrifice and finish in one day? Do they have the ability to make stones out of piles of dust that have been burned up?”

Catholic Public Domain Version

In The King James Version

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 the rubbish which are burned?

In Context

1Now it happened that, when Sanballat had heard that we were building the wall, he was very angry. And having been moved exceedingly, he ridiculed the Jews.

3Then too, Tobiah, an Ammonite, his assistant, said: “Let them build. When the fox climbs, he will leap over their stone wall.”

Read all of Nehemiah 4

Cross References

1 Samuel 14:11And so, both of them appeared before the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, “See, the Hebrews have come out from the holes in which they had been hiding.”

Ezra 4:4Therefore, it happened that the people of the land impeded the hands of the people of Judah, and they troubled them in building.

Nehemiah 4:10Then Judah said: “The strength of those who carry has diminished, and the amount of material is very great, and so we will not be able to build the wall.”

Nehemiah 12:43On that day also, they enrolled men over the storehouses of the treasury, for the libations, and for the first-fruits, and for the tithes, so that the leaders of the city might bring these in, by them, with proper thanksgiving, for the priests and the Levites. For Judah was rejoicing in the priests and the Levites who were assisting.

Ezekiel 37:3And he said to me, “Son of man, do you think that these bones will live?” And I said, “O Lord God, you know.”

Habakkuk 3:2Lord, I heard what has been said about you, and I was afraid. Lord, your work, in the midst of years, revive it. In the midst of years, you will make it known. When you have become angry, you will remember mercy.

Matthew Henry on Nehemiah 4:2-7

The Opposition of Sanballat, &c.. ( b. c. 445.) 1 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. 2 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 the rubbish which are burned? 3 Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Nehemiah 4:2