Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Nehemiah 6:8
Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.
8. There are no such things done] Literally, ‘it has not happened or it has not been done according to these words.’ Nehemiah contents himself with curtly retorting that there is no sort of foundation for Sanballat’s words. The letters of Artaxerxes to ‘the governor beyond the river’ (Neh 2:9) were well known to all; Nehemiah could not be a rebel; he had royal and official support for his work. And the assertion that he was currently rumoured to be engaged in an insurrectionary movement was a mere pretence. The very rumour, he replies, is of Sanballat’s own making; and such as it is, it has nothing to go upon.
Nehemiah saw that the object of the letter was to damage him in the eyes of the people. Compare Sennacherib’s messengers, 2Ch 32:18.
thou feignest them out of thine own heart ] i.e. your assertion that a rumour of this kind is being circulated is as much your own invention as the statements which you graft upon it. ‘Feignest.’ The Hebrew word so rendered only occurs elsewhere in the O. T. in 1Ki 12:33, ‘in the month which he had devised of his own heart.’
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 8. There are no such things done] You well know that what you say is false: I shall not, therefore, trouble myself about a false charge.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Then I sent unto him,…. Whether a letter, or a messenger, is not said:
saying there are no such things done as thou sayest; that there was any scheme formed to rebel, and make him king, or that prophets were appointed to declare him such:
but thou feignest them out of thine own heart; in short, that they were no other than lies of his own inventing.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
8. Thou feignest them heart The governor no longer hesitates to charge his enemy with devising a wicked slander.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Neh 6:8 Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.
Ver. 8. There are no such things done as thou sayest ] Nehemiah is not too careful to clear himself. This was so transparent a lie, that a man might see through it, and was, therefore, best answered with a neglective denial. It falls out often that plain dealing puts craft out of countenance. Animus recti conscius obiecta probra ut visus nocturnos et vanas somniorum imagines digno supplicio punit, festivo scilicet contemptu, et oblivione: vel, si tanti est, misericordia elevat (John Wower).
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
feignest. Only here and 1Ki 12:33 (devise).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
There are: Act 24:12, Act 24:13, Act 25:7, Act 25:10
thou feignest: Job 13:4, Psa 36:3, Psa 38:12, Psa 52:2, Isa 59:4, Dan 11:27, Mat 12:34, Joh 8:44
Reciprocal: Jer 37:14 – said