1. Nehemiah 2:19 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What do the words “jeer” and “despise” mean?

Nehemiah 2:19 (ESV)

19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”

The term translated as jeer means to hold in contempt, to mock. The term carries a distinctly hostile flavour (see also Job 11:3; Jeremiah 20:7). The word despise conveys the notion of thinking lightly of another, undervaluing him. Taken together, the two words picture these three enemies as treating Israel with great disdain and so considering their intentions ludicrous. Their disdain receives further expression in their distasteful question: What is this thing that you are doing? It is all so belittling. Of course, beneath their human-centred ridicule was a disdain of Israel’s God.