Sanballat’s official shared the governor’s disdain for the Jews and their labours. He added to the scorn by intimating that if even a fox would climb on their restored walls (made of stones compromised by fire), they would come tumbling down again. We should be aware that foxes were common animals in Israel (Judges 15:4). They could be expected to build their lairs among the rocks of ruins (Ezekiel 13:4, where the same Hebrew term is translated as jackal
). The animal weighs no more than 5 kilograms.
3 Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Yes, what they are building if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!”