And, lo, I perceived that God had not sent him; but that he pronounced this prophecy against me: for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
Then I realized that God had not sent him at all. He was speaking this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had paid him to do it.
Nehemiah recognized that a supposed prophet was actually being paid by his enemies to deceive and discourage him from his God-given mission.
📚 Historical Context
In the book of Nehemiah, the Jewish people had returned from exile in Babylon and were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem under Nehemiah's leadership to restore their city's defenses and national identity. Enemies like Sanballat and Tobiah, who opposed the rebuilding as a threat to their influence, employed deception and hired individuals to disrupt the project. In Nehemiah 6:12, Nehemiah discerns that a man named Shemaiah was not a genuine prophet sent by God but was paid by these adversaries to deliver a false prophecy aimed at intimidating him into hiding.
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