enemies “heard” (4:1), so now Nehemiah implores God to “hear” (v. 4) their taunts and vindicate his “feeble” (v. 2) people. To bring reproach upon the Lord’s people is to bring reproach upon the Lord himself (1 Sam. 17:26, 45). It was this very reproach (= “shame”) that moved Nehemiah to action in the first place (Neh. 1:3). He yearns for poetic justice such that the vicious words that have made the community “despised” (Hb. buzah) will someday turn back upon Sanballat and Tobiah so that they become