and saith before his brethren and the force of Samaria, yea, he saith, `What <FI>are<Fi> the weak Jews doing? are they left to themselves? do they sacrifice? do they complete in a day? do they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish? --and they burnt!'
Nehemiah 4:1 And it cometh to pass, when Sanballat hath heard that we are building the wall, that it is displeasing to him, and he is very angry and mocketh at the Jews,
Nehemiah 4:2 and saith before his brethren and the force of Samaria, yea, he saith, `What <FI>are<Fi> the weak Jews doing? are they left to themselves? do they sacrifice? do they complete in a day? do they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish? --and they burnt!'
Nehemiah 4:3 And Tobiah the Ammonite <FI>is<Fi> by him and saith, `Also, that which they are building--if a fox doth go up, then it hath broken down their stone wall.'
Nehemiah 4:4 Hear, O our God, for we have been despised; and turn back their reproach on their own head, and give them for a spoil in a land of captivity;
The verse centers on "saith", "before", "brethren", "force", "samaria", "weak", and "jews". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "saith" and "before", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 1's "And it cometh to pass when Sanballat..." into verse 3's "And Tobiah the Ammonite FI is Fi...", so "saith" 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 "saith" and "before" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.