Nehemiah 2:17 Commentary and Bible Study

Following his survey, Nehemiah now speaks to all the people. ‘You see the distress we are in’, that is, the evil or the harm we are in, and the consequences of this. ‘How Jerusalem lieth waste and the gates thereof are burned with fire.’ Then he gives the great invitation, but this is a summary account and would have taken a good many words to say, ‘Come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem that we be no more a reproach’, ‘a cause of shame’ is the meaning of the Hebrew word. It is a reproach, a shame to the Lord, that the city of the Lord, from which emanates the teaching of the word of God and the worship, is a broken down, trampled underfoot city, in poverty, and a disgrace to the world. We are a shame to the Lord and to the world, he says. We cut such a dreadful figure. But then he goes about it, so helpfully. ‘I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me.’ He encouraged them by telling them of the remarkable providences by which he had been given the royal seal of approval, and help and support, and letters of safety to quieten down the hostile governors. This is the first time the people have heard about it, for he has operated in secret until now. When they heard this, ‘they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.’