Nehemiah 2:17–2:20, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Nehemiah 2:17–2:20
The community rises to build amid accusation
The appeal names shared disgrace and invites repair
Nehemiah says they see the distress: Jerusalem lies waste, gates burned. Come, let us build up the wall, that we be no more a reproach. He reports the king's words and the hand of God. They say, Let us rise up and build, and strengthen their hands.
The wall in view is a ruined city's broken circuit after conquest, so households can live without open shame. It is not a later nation's border slogan.
Mockery turns into a charge of rebellion
Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem laugh them to scorn and ask whether they rebel against the king. Nehemiah answers that the God of heaven will prosper them; his servants will arise and build. The opponents have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem.
The three terms belong to this dispute over who may claim this civic work. They are not a racial citizenship code and they do not deny outsiders' human dignity.
How this should shape us
Invite people with shared facts and a limited repair. Answer false charges without turning critics, neighbors, or whole ancestries into people without a name.
Teach it back
Explain Nehemiah 2:17–2:20 in your own words. Include its movement, one source-supported detail, one material uncertainty, one affected or obscured person, and one misuse the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters debate the legal, cultic, and rhetorical force of the three denial terms; the text does not give a general theory of belonging.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Nehemiah 2:17–2:20, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, clause relationships, repeated roots, Persian titles, names, and translation controls.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Neh.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 2:17–2:20
Supports: A unit-bounded KJV comparison plus only the lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, literary, or older-English notes actually printed for these verses; silence in the notes is not treated as positive evidence.
NET Bible Nehemiah PDF, printed p. 764, translation text and any translator notes printed for 2:17–2:20
Supports: A bounded Persian-period setting control for Jerusalem's small scale, disputed wall line, gates, repopulation, temple-centered administration, Sabbath, intermarriage, and archaeological limits; it is not cited as independent proof of this unit.
Sivan, Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Jerusalem and Iran,' Vol. XIV, Fasc. 6, pp. 632–634, complete Achaemenid-period section; book-level setting control for Nehemiah 2:17–2:20
Supports: A bounded book-level control for competing memoir, source, editorial-layer, Ezra-Nehemiah, list, chronology, and literary-composition proposals; it is not cited as verse-specific historical proof.
Fulton pp. 5–10, Carr pp. 11–20, Klein pp. 21–27, and Wright pp. 28–36 in JHS 7 (2007), article 12; book-level composition control applied to Nehemiah 2:17–2:20
Supports: Later fifth-century primary evidence for Persian provincial offices, Bagohi in Judah, a Sanballat gubernatorial family in Samaria, temple petitioning, and diverse Yahwistic diaspora communities.
TAD A4.7/Cowley 30, petition dated 25 November 407 BCE, recto and verso lines 1–30, especially the governor and Sanballat-family notices
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Nehemiah 2:17–2:20, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Nehemiah
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, clause relationships, repeated roots, Persian titles, names, and translation controls.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Neh.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 2:17–2:20
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Nehemiah with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: A unit-bounded KJV comparison plus only the lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, literary, or older-English notes actually printed for these verses; silence in the notes is not treated as positive evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible Nehemiah PDF, printed p. 764, translation text and any translator notes printed for 2:17–2:20
Open source ↗scholarly encyclopedia article
Jerusalem and Iran
Hagith Sivan
Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XIV, Fasc. 6, pp. 632-634, 2008; updated 2012
Supports: A bounded Persian-period setting control for Jerusalem's small scale, disputed wall line, gates, repopulation, temple-centered administration, Sabbath, intermarriage, and archaeological limits; it is not cited as independent proof of this unit.
Exact location: Sivan, Encyclopaedia Iranica, 'Jerusalem and Iran,' Vol. XIV, Fasc. 6, pp. 632–634, complete Achaemenid-period section; book-level setting control for Nehemiah 2:17–2:20
Open source ↗peer reviewed scholarly forum
Revisiting the Composition of Ezra-Nehemiah: In Conversation with Jacob Wright's Rebuilding Identity
Deirdre N. Fulton, David M. Carr, Ralph W. Klein, Gary N. Knoppers, and Jacob L. Wright
Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 7, article 12, 2007
Supports: A bounded book-level control for competing memoir, source, editorial-layer, Ezra-Nehemiah, list, chronology, and literary-composition proposals; it is not cited as verse-specific historical proof.
Exact location: Fulton pp. 5–10, Carr pp. 11–20, Klein pp. 21–27, and Wright pp. 28–36 in JHS 7 (2007), article 12; book-level composition control applied to Nehemiah 2:17–2:20
Open source ↗primary achaemenid period aramaic document
Petition to Authorize Rebuilding the Elephantine Temple (TAD A4.7; Cowley 30)
Yedaniah and fellow Jewish priests of Yeb; modern presentation by K. C. Hanson
K. C. Hanson Collection of West Semitic Documents, 25 November 407 BCE; web edition
Supports: Later fifth-century primary evidence for Persian provincial offices, Bagohi in Judah, a Sanballat gubernatorial family in Samaria, temple petitioning, and diverse Yahwistic diaspora communities.
Exact location: TAD A4.7/Cowley 30, petition dated 25 November 407 BCE, recto and verso lines 1–30, especially the governor and Sanballat-family notices
Open source ↗