Nehemiah 6:4

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

They sent to me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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פְּעָמִ֑ים

paʻam

H6471

“times”

Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute

Appears 118× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 2:23

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H6470

TWOT: 1793a

stroke, beat, foot, step, anvil, occurrence - foot, hoof-beat, footfall, footstep - anvil - occurrence, time, stroke, beat - one time, once, twice, thrice, as time on time, at this repetition, this once, now at length, now...now, at one time...at another

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

10: words
8: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
3 nouns
1 adjective
2 pronouns
1 preposition
1 particle

Verb forms

וַיִּשְׁלְח֥וּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וָאָשִׁ֥יב Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

כַּדָּבָ֥ר word H1697 ×2
הַזֶּ֖ה this H2088 ×2

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Nehemiah 6:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Luke 18:5 yet because this widow bothers me, I will defend her, or else she will wear me out by her continual coming.'"
Judges 16:6 Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, Please, in which your great strength lies, and with which you might be bound to afflict you.
Judges 16:10 Delilah said to Samson, Behold, you have mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, Please, with which you might be bound.
Judges 16:15–20 She said to him, How can you say, I love you, when your heart is not with me? you have mocked me these three times, and have not told me in which your great strength lies.
Proverbs 7:21 With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.
Proverbs 14:15 A simple man believes everything, But the prudent man carefully considers his ways.
1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord's work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Galatians 2:5 to whom we gave no place in the way of subjection, not for an hour, that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Nehemiah 6:4 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיִּשְׁלְח֥וּ אֵלַ֛י כַּדָּבָ֥ר הַזֶּ֖ה אַרְבַּ֣ע פְּעָמִ֑ים וָאָשִׁ֥יב אוֹתָ֖ם כַּדָּבָ֥ר הַזֶּֽה

They sent to me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Structure differs

The Septuagint has no separate book of Nehemiah. Its Greek text is the second half of Esdras B (2 Esdras), chapters 11–23; Ezra is the first half (1–10).

A verse-for-verse comparison isn’t shown here because the chapters and verses don’t line up. Switch to the LXX edition with the MT / LXX toggle above to read the Greek directly.

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from a public-domain English Septuagint. How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Nehemiah 6:4 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Neh 6:4 Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner.

Ver. 4. Yet they sent unto me four times] As thinking to prevail by their importunity. This wicked men have learned from their master Beelzebub, the lord of flies, as the name (απομυιος) signifieth, or master fly, that will not off the bait till beaten, and hardly then. Sin hath painted an impudency in some men’s faces; and it appears they are past all grace, because shameless, Et pudet non esse impudentes, it is not shameful to be impudent. saith Austin.

And I answered them after the same manner] Nehemiah stood immoveable as a rock; he was homo quadratus, man, four-square, not to be altered, but firm to his principles, resolute in his holy purposes. We may style him (as Theodoret doth Athanasius) the bulwark of truth (προβολον της αληθειας), the Church’s champion. Nec tremere, nec timide, may seem to have been his motto, neither temerarious nor timorous.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Neh 6:4. Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort — We must never be overcome by the greatest importunity to do any thing ill or imprudent: but when we are attacked with the same temptation, still resist it with the same reason and resolution.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

4. yet] R.V. And. The A.V. suggests the thought which the copula does not express, that in spite of such a rebuff Sanballat and his companions were not daunted.

after this sort … after the same manner] The Hebrew phrase is the same in both cases. As it occurs again in the next verse (Neh_6:5, ‘in like manner’), though the nature of the message is different, we clearly must not press the words here to mean a literal repetition of the request and answer. It only indicates a general similarity in the character of the four applications, and in the answers which they elicited. Cf. for the use of this phrase 1Sa_17:27; 1Sa_17:30; 2Sa_15:6.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort,.... Being very desirous of getting him into their hands, and therefore were very pressing and importunate:

and I answered them after the same manner; every time as before, he being as much bent on finishing the work as they were to divert him from it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Four times, &c. - We must never be overcome by the greatest importunity, to do anything ill or imprudent: but when we are attacked with the same temptation, still resist it with the same reason and resolution.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Nehemiah, in the Historical, opens this verse with 10 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is paʻam (“time”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “time” (paʻam) contribute to the verse as a whole?
How does Luke 18:5, which shares this passage’s theme, read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “word” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
«וַיִּשְׁלְח֥וּ» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
“word” occurs 2× in this single verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 10 words in this verse.