The present chapter provides no internal hint as to when this outcry reached its crescendo. Nehemiah 3:1–32 and Nehemiah 4:1–23 had provided for us a picture of the population diligently reconstructing the wall, even despite external opposition. According to Nehemiah 6:15, the project took fifty-two days to complete. One might think that the crisis described in the present text could not rise to its stated heights within a brief seven weeks. We might do best to understand that the disparity between rich and poor, and even the rich’s insensitivity to the poor, preceded Nehemiah’s arrival in the city and the commencement of the rebuilding project. That many in the city (not all!) gave themselves (at personal expense!) to the project drove this exploitation to a head. The fact that Nehemiah printed this chapter between Nehemiah 4:1–23 and Nehemiah 6:1–19 (both of which speak of external opposition) compels us to understand that opposition to church-building work can and does also come from within!
1 Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.