Identifier: historyofjewishp1908kent (find matches)
Title: A history of the Jewish people during the Babylonian, Persian, and Greek periods : with maps and chart
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Kent, Charles Foster, 1867-1925
Subjects: Jews
Publisher: New York : C. Scribner's sons
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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ssumed the responsi-bility of completing other divisions of the work. Eventhe more important guilds, as, for example, that ofthe goldsmiths, were represented in the distribution.Many private individuals were allowed to repair thewall opposite their own houses. In this way the lazy,wrangling community was suddenly transformed intoan intensely active working body. It is reported thatof all the groups of workmen represented, the noblesfrom Tekoa alone did not faithfully discharge thetask laid upon them by Nehemiah. 161 The constant danger of attack soon nerved allto put forth the most strenuous efforts. At first theirfoes, headed by Sanballat the Horonite, who probablycame from Beth-horon, located in the territory ofSamaria, Tobiah, who seems to have been the Persianofficial head of the Ammonites, and Gashmu (orGeshem), an Arabian, only jeered at the suggestionthat the Jews would succeed in fortifying the ancientcapital. Superlative contempt and probably a sneer THE JERUSALEMOF NEHEMIAH.
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THREATS OF THE NEIGHBORS OF THE JEWS 173 at the attitude of the party of the meek are expressedin the words of Sanballat: Do these weak and lazyJews think that all that is necessary is for them togather together and propitiate their God by sacrifice,and that then, out of these charred ruins, walls willrise in a day ? Yes, a fox leaping upon any wallwhich they will rear, would be able to tumble it over,was the equally scornful rejoinder of Tobiah. Theirwords aroused the hot anger of Nehemiah, and calledforth from him a bitter prayer for vengeance. At tliesame time the implied menace impelled the workmento redouble their exertions, so that in an incrediblyshort time the breaches in the walls were nearlyclosed. 162. Then the scorn of their neighbors, the Samari-tans, the Arabians, the Ammonites, and the inhabitantsof the Philistine town of Ashdod, was changed to alarm,for they recognized that a new spirit had been infusedinto the Jewish community, which hitherto they hadfound an easy pre

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