In the previous chapter, Nehemiah had provided a concise overview of various contributors to the reconstruction of Jerusalem’s broken wall. The account of the overview circumnavigated the entire city, ending where it began, so that future readers received a sense that the wall and its gates were completed. The account gave no reference to any opposition to the work. In fact the labourers encountered extensive opposition, which Nehemiah begins to recount in the present paragraph.
1 Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews.