And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What are these feeble Jews doing? 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?
Nehemiah 4:1 But it came to pass that, when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews.
Nehemiah 4:2 And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What are these feeble Jews doing? 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?
Nehemiah 4:3 Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they are building, if a fox go up, he shall break down their stone wall.
Nehemiah 4:4 Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn back their reproach upon their own head, and give them up for a spoil in a land of captivity;
The verse centers on "spake", "before", "brethren", "army", "samaria", "said", "feeble", and "jews". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "spake" and "before", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 1's "But it came to pass that when..." into verse 3's "Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him...", so "spake" and "before" belong inside that flow. In Nehemiah context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "spake" and "before" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.