Bible Strands
Nehemiah 4:10
Meanwhile, the people of Judah said: “The strength of the laborer fails, and there is so much rubble that we will never be able to rebuild the wall.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The people of Judah speak among themselves during the wall reconstruction when physical exhaustion meets the overwhelming volume of rubble.
The words — כֹּ֣חַ (Ko.ach) denotes the strength of the laborers, while כָּשַׁל (ka.Shal) describes that strength failing or becoming weak under the burden.
The thread — This report of impossibility runs parallel to the scouts' claim in Numbers 13:31 and the earlier discouragement of the Israelites in Numbers 32:9.
Why it lands — It forces a direct confrontation with material limits and fatigue before any decision to persist or abandon the work.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.
Cross-references
- Numbers 13:31 But the men who had gone up with him replied, “We cannot go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are!”
- Numbers 32:9 For when your fathers went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the Israelites from entering the land that the LORD had given them.
- 2 Chronicles 2:18 Solomon made 70,000 of them porters, 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains, and 3,600 supervisors.
- Psalms 11:1 For the choirmaster. Of David. In the LORD I take refuge. How then can you say to me: “Flee like a bird to your mountain!
- Ezekiel 29:18 “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to labor strenuously against Tyre. Every head was made bald and every shoulder made raw. But he and his army received no wages from Tyre for the labor they expended on it.
- Haggai 1:2 that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.’”