Lives of Scripture

Shemaiah, son of Delaiah and grandson of Mehetabel, appears in Nehemiah's account of rebuilding Jerusalem's walls as a man "confined at home" whom Nehemiah visited (Nehemiah 6:10). Nehemiah's enemies Sanballat and Tobiah, unable to stop the wall by force or slander, had hired Shemaiah to pose as a prophet and unsettle Nehemiah's resolve. Shemaiah urged him, "Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you -- they are coming to kill you at night" (6:10). It was a trap on two levels: fleeing into the temple's inner sanctuary was itself forbidden to a layman like Nehemiah, so following the advice would have discredited and disgraced him even as it appeared to save his life. Nehemiah saw through it: "Should a man like me flee? And could one such as I go into the temple and live? I will not go in." He recognized "that God had not sent him, but he uttered this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him" to frighten him into sin and give his enemies grounds to discredit him (6:11-13). Shemaiah's attempted deception failed, and the wall was finished in fifty-two days (6:15).