Nehemiah 4:1 (DBY)

Passage

And it came to pass that when Sanballat heard that we built the wall, he was angry and very indignant, and mocked the Jews.

Nearby Context

Nehemiah 4:1 And it came to pass that when Sanballat heard that we built the wall, he was angry and very indignant, and mocked the Jews.

Nehemiah 4:2 And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? shall they be permitted to go on? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, when they are burned?

Nehemiah 4:3 And Tobijah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox went up, it would break down their stone wall.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "came", "pass", "sanballat", "heard", "built", "wall", "angry", and "very". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "came" and "pass", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The next verse adds "And he spoke before his brethren and...", so "came" and "pass" should be read forward into that movement. In Nehemiah context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "came" and "pass" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.