Now it came to pass, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and [that] there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;)
Ver. 1. Now it came to pass] Lo, here another let to the good work in hand. That in the fourth chapter was external only; that in the fifth internal only; this here is mixed, that is, partly cast in by the enemies without (those cruel crafties), and partly helped on by the perfidious prophets and ignobles within, conspiring with the enemy against the good of their own country. Thus fluctus fluctum trudit. Disorder creates disorder.
And the rest of our enemies] The Church's enemies are not a few, 1 Corinthians 16:9. She is like unto a silly poor maid, saith Luther, sitting in a wood or wilderness, compassed about with hungry wolves, lions, boars, bears, assaulting her every moment and minute. The ground of all is that old enmity, Genesis 3:15 .
That I had builded the wall] This wall made Nehemiah, as Winchester tower at Windsor made William Wickham, that is, raised and renowned him; and in a like sense as God is said to have made Moses and Aaron, 1 Samuel 12:6, that is, to have advanced them in the hearts of his people.
And that there was no breach left therein] It had been but half-built, Nehemiah 4:6, and the breaches but began to be stopped, Nehemiah 6:6; Nehemiah 6:15, yet now all is finished, amidst much opposition; so shall the work of grace be in our hearts. But whilst here a Christian hath his Ulterius More, still (which was Charles V's motto), his Superius, Greatest, as the guest in the Gospel that was bid to sit higher, &c., something is yet wanting to his full and final salvation, which he is still to work out, Philippians 2:12, like as here, the doors were not yet upon their hinges.