Nehemiah 4:4,5 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Hear, O our God Nehemiah here interrupts the relation, to mention the prayer he made on the occasion. Turn their reproach upon their own head Let them really be as contemptible as they represent us to be. This and the following requests must seem harsh to us, who are taught by the Lord Jesus to love our enemies, to bless those that curse us, and pray for those that despitefully use and persecute us. Probably they were uttered rather by a spirit of prophecy than a spirit of prayer, and are to be considered as declaratory of the judgments of God against persecutors. They certainly had their accomplishment in the subsequent doom of these nations. And give them for a prey in the land of their captivity Let them be removed from our neighbourhood, and carried into captivity; and there let them find no favour, but further severity. Or, give them for a prey to their enemies, and let these carry them into the land of captivity. And cover not their iniquity Let their wickedness be in thy sight, so as to bring down judgments upon them, that either they may be reformed, or others may be warned by their example. God is said to cover or hide sin, when he forbears to punish it. For they have provoked thee They have not only provoked us builders, but thee also. Or, they have provoked, or derided, the builders to their face; that is, openly and impudently, in contempt of God, and of this work, which is done by his direction and encouragement. Nehemiah, in these petitions, if they be petitions, and not rather predictions, as has just been intimated, is not to be imitated by us, but rather he, whose disciples we profess to be, and who, when upon the cross, and under the bitterest agonies, prayed most fervently for the forgiveness of those that crucified him.