Nehemiah 4:1 (WEB)

Passage

But when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry, and was very indignant, and mocked the Jews.

Nearby Context

Nehemiah 4:1 But when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry, and was very indignant, and mocked the Jews.

Nehemiah 4:2 He spoke before his brothers and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, since they are burned?”

Nehemiah 4:3 Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, “What they are building, if a fox climbed up it, he would break down their stone wall.”

Study Lenses

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

The next verse adds "He spoke before his brothers and the...", so "sanballat" and "heard" 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 "sanballat" and "heard" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.