What do these feeble Jews, &c.— Mr. Peters observes upon this passage, which is remarkable for its phraseology, that it seems to give no obscure intimation, that the doctrine of the resurrection was the popular belief of the Jews in these days. "Reviving of stones," says he, "is a very easy metaphor to those who are acquainted with the doctrine of the resurrection; but, otherwise, not so easy or obvious." The word היחיו hayechaiiu, vivisicabunt, is the very same that is used for raising the dead. Out of the heaps of rubble, is, in the Hebrew, heaps of dust עפר ערמות areimoth apar, another word often used when speaking of a resurrection; and what follows with an emphasis, and yet these same stones are burnt, points out to us the method of funeral [by burning] used particularly among those who had no belief or expectation of a resurrection.
The Jews to this day charge the poor remnant of the sect of Samaritans with the disbelief of a future resurrection; though, on the other hand, they deny and disavow the charge. It is highly probable, that in our Saviour's time they believed it; for they worshipped the same God, and had the same expectation of a Messiah, as appears from the Samaritan woman's discourse with our Lord, John 4:25. But in the days of Nehemiah they seem to have been little better than heathens; a sort of mixed breed, out of the scum of many nations. Nehemiah tells them, ch. Nehemiah 2:20 that they had no right or portion in Jerusalem, being of a different religion from the Jews; it is highly probable, therefore, that they disbelieved a resurrection. Now if Sanballat, in that vein of mirth and buffoonery which he and his friend Tobiah appear at this time to be in, meant to ridicule this doctrine of the Jewish faith, as well as laugh at their attempt in building, we see a plain reason of that indignation which Nehemiah presently conceived at it, and which drew from him that solemn address to God, Nehemiah 4:4. Hear O our God; for we, thy worshippers, are despised, &c. Had there been no more in Sanballat's speech than in that of Tobiah which follows, (who with a scorn, perhaps, more affected than real, says, that a fox, if he were to jump upon it, might break down their stone walls,) so wise and good a man as Nehemiah, probably, would have treated it with silence and contempt: but we find, that he resents it in another manner; beseeches God to turn their reproach upon their own head; speaks of it as a sin or iniquity of the first magnitude; Nehemiah 4:5 for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders; that is, in the most public manner, and in the face of God's people, had dared to utter their impieties, and ridicule that faith which they professed.