It is recorded in the text that, while Rehum, the Persian satrap west of the Euphrates (Ezra 4), awaited a reply to his letter to the king (Ezra 4:8, 12-16), there were other plots made against Nehemiah within the walls of the very city he built up to protect the Jews from their enemies. Sanballat wasn’t content to wait for a response to Rehum’s letter from the king, because he couldn’t know how the king would react. After all, didn’t he show his support of the building project at Jerusalem in the first place, by sending Nehemiah there to rebuild the city’s walls? While Sanballat wasn’t able to openly make war with Nehemiah and the Jews, because that would be rebellion against the king, neither was he without any influence at all among the Jews. His web of deceit extended not only among the heathen nations around Jerusalem, but it also reached inside Jerusalem’s walls to some of the most powerful Jewish families!
After Rehum, the satrap, had sent his letter to the king, Nehemiah records that he went into the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah. Now the children of Delaiah were among those families who had come up in the original release by Cyrus, under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Jeshua (cp. Ezra 2:1-2, 59-60). They claimed to be priests (cp. 1Chronicles 24:18), but they were unable to prove their ancestry with genealogical records. In fact, they weren’t even able to prove they were Jews. Nevertheless, they were reckoned as priests, but with polluted records. Although they could participate in some priestly functions, they were forbidden by Zerubbabel, the governor, to eat of the most holy things (Ezra 2:63). In any case, Nehemiah was visiting or was summoned to Shemaiah’s house, who was shut up there (Nehemiah 6:10).
Why was he shut up in his house? It is difficult to say. Some conclude he was there, because he was ceremonially unclean, but if this is the case, why would Nehemiah permit himself to become ceremonially unclean by touching him or by touching those things he touched? On the other hand, the text may merely be reinforcing the idea that his genealogy wasn’t pure, and he was unable to participate, as a priest, in matters within the Temple compound. However, if these things were so, how could he offer to go with Nehemiah and take refuge within the Temple? Therefore, neither uncleanliness nor genealogical impurity are logical reasons for his being shut up. Additionally, he was considered by some to be a prophet, and prophets not only speak their prophesies, but often act them out in some manner. So, he seems to have shut himself up in order to convey to Nehemiah what he needed to do, in order to protect himself from Sanballat and his allies: “Let us meet together in the House of God, within the Temple, and let us shut the doors of the Temple: for they will come to slay you; yea, in the night will they come to slay you” (Nehemiah 6:10).
There is a problem with Shemaiah’s advice, and it exposes him to Nehemiah, as a false prophet (Nehemiah 6:12). Not only was Nehemiah a layman, who by nature couldn’t enter the holy places of the Temple (Numbers 18:7), but he was probably a eunuch, as a servant of the king, and eunuchs are forbidden to enter the holy places of the House of God (Leviticus 21:17-24; Deuteronomy 23:1). It may be that Shemaiah tried to get Nehemiah to agree to allow himself to be anointed king by the prophet, which in itself would lend credence to Sanballat’s accusations (Nehemiah 6:6-7), and thereby commit an act of treason against the king. However, Nehemiah refused Shemaiah’s counsel (Nehemiah 6:11), because if he were to be truly protected by God (cp. Nehemiah 6:9), he would need to place his trust in God and not his own efforts (cp. Daniel 3:16-18).
Had Shemaiah succeeded in his scheme to deceive and discredit Nehemiah, Sanballat would have had the proof he needed to permit him to openly attack the Jews, under the guise they were in open rebellion against the king (Nehemiah 6:13). However, Nehemiah was able to see through Shemaiah’s scheme, and, recognizing him as a false prophet, Nehemiah prayed to God, asking him to reward his enemies according to their works (Nehemiah 6:14).
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