Nehemiah 6:10 Commentary and Bible Study

Then the next trial starts. Now they use somebody within Jerusalem, somebody who held office. Sanballat and Tobiah put up an insider to do their work. ‘Afterward I came unto the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up.’ There is an explanation as to why Shemaiah couldn't go to see Nehemiah, and that is that he was shut up. Why was Shemaiah shut up in his house? One answer is that he was ceremonially unclean, and so he was confined to his house for the time being. He claims to be a prophet. He is well connected. He is actually the son of one of Nehemiah’s closest confidents and friends, so he is likely to be influential, but at the moment he is in his home. Another reason possibly why he is shut up in his home is that he's feigning fear, or feigning the need to hide from public view. He is going to pretend to be a prophet sent from God to warn Nehemiah about something, and he claims as a result to be afraid for his own life. It is a strategy to convince Nehemiah that he is in earnest. That is quite plausible. He’s got a pedigree; he’s a prophet. He's in Jerusalem. He holds office there as a prophet. The signs are that nobody has ever thought he was a false prophet up to this point, because he obviously calls for Nehemiah, and Nehemiah doesn't say, ‘Tell that scoundrel to be quiet.’ No, he goes to his house to hear what he has to say; he honours him. Why would Nehemiah go out to see this man? Because he was the son of a close friend of Nehemiah’s, so he was worthy of trust. See how, when the devil is mounting a plot, he can sometimes choose someone who is so placed that you might be inclined to trust him. Shemaiah says to Nehemiah, ‘Let us meet together in the house of God within the temple.’ Now that is a strangely cumbersome phrase, and most exegetes seem to agree that this undoubtedly means, let us meet in the holy of holies. Let us meet in the holy place, which was of course utterly improper, and against the ceremonial law, the law of God. ‘Let us meet together within the temple, in that innermost place, and let us shut the doors of the temple, because there is a plot to kill you.’ It is timed to take place between these hours, is the implication, and I'm at risk too, so let us go and take refuge in the temple and be protected. That is his message. ‘They going to kill you, so let's go to the temple and seek refuge there. We will we will be safe there.’ So Nehemiah was invited to go to him. Here you have got a Jewish prophet, possibly also a priest, of lineage, of pedigree, who is orthodox and is undoubtedly a teacher of the right things in Jerusalem, who keeps the law, but it turns out he is a phony and nobody knows that up until this time. This is his message to Nehemiah which he will have claimed God told him. It doesn't say that, but the narrative is so framed that it is reasonable to assume that this is what he claims was a message from God.