SERIES O --- RETURN TO THE LAND --- LESSON 08

OPPOSITION COMES

BUILDING THE WALL

From Nehemiah 4-5

When Sanballat, a very influential Samaritan leader, heard that we were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, he was very angry and began to insult the Jews. He spoke to the wealthy and military leaders of Samaria, mocking the Jews and our work. [What are those poor Jews doing?] he mocked. [Will they rebuild the wall by offering a few sacrifices? Do they think they can finish it in a day? How can they salvage all those stones from a pile of charred rubble?] Tobiah the Ammonite was standing nearby, and he, too, began to mock us. [If a fox walked up on their stone wall it would probably fall down,] he laughed. Then I began to pray. [Adonai, listen to us, for we are despised,] I pleaded. [Send their mocking back upon them, and let them become captives in a land far away. Do not cover their sin or remove it. When they despise us for building Your wall, they are really despising You. The people worked hard, and at last the wall reached half its full height around the entire city. But the report of our successful building reached Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites. They realized that the openings in the walls were rapidly closing, and this made them very angry. They plotted an attack against the city, hoping to create rioting and confusion. But we prayed and set up guards to protect ourselves and the wall both day and night. Some of our leaders, however, complained about our problems. [Our workmen are getting tired,] they said. [There is so much rubble to remove. How can we do all this work ourselves?] At the same time our enemies made plans for an attack. [They will not even know that we are coming until we are there in the midst of them,] they said. [Then we will kill them, and that will end this work. Whenever the Jews who lived in the villages near these people went to their homes, they were approached by these enemies. They tried to frighten them and keep them from going back to work. [Everywhere you go, they try to pounce on you,] they complained to me. Because of these things, I placed guards with swords, spears, and bows behind the wall in the open places. Then I called our leaders together for a talk. [You must not be afraid of those people,] I told them. [Adonai, Who is Great and Powerful, will fight for your brothers, sons, daughters, and wives, and for your houses.] Our enemies soon learned that we knew about their plot and that YHVH had frustrated their plans. We were able to go back to work on the wall; but from that time on, half of the people worked on the wall and half of them stood guard with spears, shields, and bows, and wearing coats of mail. The stone masons and workmen always kept weapons close by or swords strapped to their sides. The trumpeter was always near me to sound the alarm. [Our work is spread over a great distance,] I explained to the nobles and rulers, as well as to the others. [Whenever you hear the trumpet sound, gather around us, for Adonai will fight for us.] From daybreak until dark we worked, half of the men working on the wall and the other half standing guard. I ordered everyone to move into Jerusalem so that they and their servants could share in the guard duty at night and in the work during the day. Until the work was done, none of us removed our clothes except to bathe. And we kept our weapons with us at all times. About this time, trouble developed among the Jews for some of the Judean countrymen were mistreating their fellow Jews. [We have large families and need food to eat,] some complained. [We have mortgaged our lands, our vineyards, and our houses,] said others, [so we can have money to buy food to eat.] Still others said, [We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. But that isn’t enough, so we have been forced to sell our children into slavery to our own Jewish people. How can we ever get out of all this since now we have lost possession of our fields and vineyards?] When I heard these things, I was very angry. After I thought for a while about the matter, I brought charges against the nobles and rulers. [You are squeezing interest money from your fellow Israelites,] I charged. Then I called a large council to try these men. [Most of us are working hard to buy back our Jewish people who were sold into the hands of the heathen,] I said. [But you nobles and rulers are forcing them back into slavery. Do you expect us to buy them again from you?] The nobles and rulers remained silent, for there was no excuse for what they had done. But I kept on urging them about the matter. [What you have been doing is wrong!] I said. [Shouldn’t you reverence YHVH in all that you do so that the enemy nations around us will not destroy us? Most of us are lending money and grain without charging any interest. So why don’t you do the same? Return the fields and vineyards, the olive orchards and houses, and the interest you have been charging your people.] [We will give all these things back and will not require any more from the people,] they promised. [We will do exactly what you say.] I called for the priests and demanded an oath that they would do as they had promised. Then I shook the folds from the lap of my garment, saying, [Thus may YHVH shake out every man from his home and his possessions if he does not fulfil his promises. May he be shaken out and left empty.] [Amen!] the council added. Then all the people gave praise to Adonai. And the nobles and rulers did as they had promised. During the entire twelve years that I was governor of Judah, which began in the twentieth year and lasted until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, neither my helpers nor I accepted food or money from our own people. Former governors had required a large amount of bread and wine, as well as forty shekels of silver for their daily allowance. They even let their servants oppress our own people. But I gave all my time to build the wall and required my officers to do the same, refusing to make money by buying and selling land. In addition, I brought a hundred and fifty Jewish officials to my own table to eat, as well as those who visited us from other lands. Our daily provisions included an ox, six fat sheep, some fowl, and a large supply of wine every ten days. Despite the cost of all this food, I refused to tax my people for it, for they were already burdened too much with great costs. Remember me, O YHVH, for all the good I have done for my people.

COMMENTARY

CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES

Long before Joshua’s conquest of Palestine, ancestors of the Canaanites had settled in the land. Their first homes were dwellings on the sides of cliffs. They built barricades of boulders that, along with natural walls of rock and earth, served to protect them both from invasion and from dangerous animals. As the Israelites settled the land, they built new, separate towns, and enlarged and strengthened existing ones. Care was taken to build these towns on sites shielded by hills and ridges. The area directly surrounding the town was then fortified by additional means. At some distance from the city a fairly low wall was built, preceded by a ditch. Closer to the town was the high, thick wall that served as major protection for the inhabitants. Directly inside the city gates was a broad open space. During invasion, soldiers could gather there to prevent enemies from breaking down the gate or to trap them in battle if they succeeded. In peacetime, the scene was very different. The broad space was filled with farmers and fishermen who had come to the market to sell their goods; with foreign merchants hawking shiny metal wares; with people meeting, gossiping, exchanging news. As the cities grew in size, the streets within them grew in disorderly number. They were not city blocks as that is understood today. Crooked and narrow, they wound through part or all of the town in no particular pattern. Usually unpaved, little more than long alleys, they grew extremely muddy during the rainy season and chokingly dusty in the dry season. Houses fronted directly onto the streets; there was nothing that could be called a sidewalk. Laws were finally passed to make living in such close quarters more bearable. People who lived in houses directly beside other houses were not permitted to open their side windows if they looked out on their neighbours’ courtyards. Merchants could not set up a shop with its main entrance in the courtyard of private homes. Tanners and dyers, who used substances possibly harmful to public health, were required to work outside the city limits. Open sewers, open wells and cesspools were prohibited. So were ladders and stairs in poor condition. And dangerous dogs were to be kept restrained. Crowding in the city certainly had its disadvantages, but even people who lived in the country and had their own land preferred to live together in un-walled small villages. They understood there was safety in numbers and security in the company of others like themselves. Some of these country villages began when herdsmen collected in small groups near their cattle grounds. Others grew up close to a roadway or a source of water. None was very far from a walled city or town; both the size of the city and the wall offered them the greatest possible protection short of actually living within the city itself.