Nehemiah — Chapter 4

Num dimittent eos gentes

Will the nations let them alone? Will they sacrifice and complete it in one day? Can they build from heaps of burned rubble? — \"Will the nations let them alone?\" — That is: Will we, the many and powerful nations surrounding the Jews, allow them to build their Jerusalem, from which they will then invade and harass us as they did of old? By no means; we must in no way allow them to build this citadel and impose it on our necks. \"Will they sacrifice and complete it in one day?\" — that is: Do they think that in one day, that is, in the briefest time, they can begin the construction of so great a city (which was done by sacrificing and dedicating the walls, then joyfully feasting) and at the same time complete it? By no means; for we will arrive in time, disturb them, and by force compel them to cease construction. \"Can they build stones from heaps of dust which have been burned?\" — In Hebrew the word for \"build\" is \"to vivify\"; in the Septuagint, \"to heal.\" That is: Can the Jews refashion the bricks and stones burned by the Chaldeans and reduced to ash, and restore them to the original solidity, strength, and utility of stones and bricks, so as to rebuild walls from them? The Jews are attempting something extremely difficult, indeed an impossible construction.

Si ascenderit vulpes transiliet

If a fox were to go up, it would break through their stone wall. — This is sarcasm, hostile mockery: As if to say: Let the Jews work and sweat as much as they like; so fragile and low will be the wall they erect that a fox could jump over it or break it down with impunity.

Ne operias iniquitatem eorum

Cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out before your face, because they have provoked the builders. — That is: Remember, O Lord, these wrongs and mockeries with which our enemies unjustly assail us, and restrain and punish them. For when God is lenient, He is said to cover sins; when He does not spare but punishes, He is said to uncover them, look upon them, and set them before His eyes. Hence St. Stephen, praying for the Jews, said: \"Lord, lay not this sin to their charge\" (Acts 7). Therefore Nehemias does not pray that God refuse forgiveness to the repentant — for that would be impious and diabolical — but that He not pardon the punishment of those unrepentant and persisting in their fault.

Dixit autem Judas debilitata

And Judah said: The strength of the bearer is weakened — that is, the Jews, wearied by labor and frightened by enemy threats, began to flag in the work and murmur against Nehemias who was pressing the construction. \"THE STRENGTH OF THE BEARER IS WEAKENED\" — that is, the shoulders and hands of the workers and laborers carrying stones, timber, water, and lime have been weakened by so great, so continuous, and so long a labor that they can barely carry them anymore. \"AND THERE IS TOO MUCH EARTH\" — that is: The work requires too much lime, earth, or (as the Hebrew and Greek have it) dust, kneaded and mixed. Or more simply: in digging the ground and laying the foundations of the walls, too much rubble of earth and stones remains to be cleared and transported for the few workers and laborers to clear it. Yet Nehemias overcame this complaint of his people too, by his gentleness in endurance and constancy in encouraging them.

Dicentibus nobis per decem

For those who came said to us by ten times, from all places whence they came to us — that is, they told us many times and informed us of the enemies' ambushes and their imminent hidden assaults. \"FROM ALL PLACES\" — that is, from everywhere came informants reporting the same thing: that the enemies were planning to attack us by stealth. Wherefore Nehemias, arming his men and placing them in battle order, forestalled, thwarted, and averted the enemies' ambushes.

Aedificantium una manu faciebat

Each one of the builders, with one hand did the work and with the other held a sword — to repel enemies suddenly rushing from ambush. Note here the prudence as well as the constancy and ardor of the people in building. Thus the Spaniards of old, continually fighting with the Saracens occupying Spain, while praying or doing anything else kept a sword at hand to drive off attackers; hence the custom prevails that peasants in Spain go about armed with swords and do not plow without one at their side. Likewise Hungarians even today leap from the plow to arms when neighboring Turks suddenly invade. For the allegory and tropology, see Bede, who says: \"The builders gird their loins with a sword when those who persist in good works and care to govern those committed to them by rule of reason (which is to place living stones in the building of the Church in fitting order) strive to restrain in themselves the sharp edge of luxury by the sword of God's word.\" Therefore, while engaged in reason, in works of charity, preaching, and other pious acts of virtue by which we build the spiritual edifice of merits in the soul, let us hold in the other hand the sword of mortification, to vigorously repel and cut off from ourselves the temptations of the flesh and the suggestions of the devil and the world — vainglory, pride, envy, gluttony, lust, etc. These are the \"arms of justice\" with which the Apostle arms every faithful person \"on the right hand and on the left\" (2 Cor. 6:7), and more fully in Ephesians 6:13.

Donec egrediantur astra noctem

Until the stars appeared — that is, until night, when the stars seem to come forth from their dens or chambers in which they lay hidden all day while the sun shone, to perform their nocturnal watches. Scripture speaks according to the perception of common people, who think stars are hidden in their lairs during the day and come forth at night to perform their watch as if in a military camp until dawn, when they return to their hiding places and \"Lucifer, last of his station, departs.\" Thus Vatablus.

Unusquisque cum puero maneat

Let every one with his servant spend the night within Jerusalem, that they may be for us a guard by night and do the work by day. — Hebrew and Septuagint: \"Let the night be for us as a watch and the day as work\" — that is: let each with his servant spend the night in the midst of Jerusalem, so that by night they may serve as a guard and by day work on the wall. Nehemias therefore orders all to spend the night in the city with their servants; from among them some are designated to keep watch by turns at night, while the rest sleep, but nearly fully clothed, so that if sentinels signal an approaching enemy, they may immediately seize arms and confront them; by day they divide their duties so that one part works and the other, armed with spears, stands guard to protect the workers.

Ego autem et fratres

But I and my brethren and my servants and the guards who were behind me did not put off our clothes. — So that I, as leader, might teach the other citizens and soldiers to do the same, not so much by word and command as by deed and example — that is, not to lay aside clothes and arms at night, following the dictum of that general in Livy (VII): \"It is my deeds, not my words, that I want you soldiers to follow.\" So did Cato, of whom Lucan (IX) says: \"He himself, carrying a pike in his own hand, goes ahead before the gasping soldiers on foot; he shows how to endure labors, not merely teaches it.\" Similarly, when I was in Flanders, the Marquis Spinola, besieging Ostend for two years, for seven full months sleeping never removed his clothes, and by this vigilance at last captured the city situated at the mouth of the sea and almost impregnable, and triumphed over it with great glory. \"EACH ONE STRIPPED ONLY FOR WASHING\" — Hebrew: each one setting aside his garments for the waters — namely the baptismal, that is, purificatory waters, when he wished to wash his body and cleanse himself. For the Jews, both on account of legal impurity easily contracted by contact with something legally unclean (e.g., by association with Gentiles), and on account of heat and consequent sweat and foulness, and dirt from other sources (wherefore Ammianus, Book II, and Martial, Book IV, Epigram 4, call the Jews malodorous), frequently washed the whole body and also their garments and beds. See what was said at Mark 7:3.