Though Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobias the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian make scorn of us, and say, 'What do these weak Jews?

But when Sanballat, the Horonite, and Tobiah, the Ammonite slave, and Geshem the Arabian heard it, they jeered at us and despised us, and said, 'What is this thing that you are doing?

[Sidenote: Neh. 6:1-9] Now when it was reported to Sanballat and to Tobiah and to Geshem the Arabian and to the rest of our enemies, that I had rebuilt the wall and that there was no breach was left in itthough even to that time I had not set up the doors in the gatesSanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, 'Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.'

[Sidenote: Neh. 6:1-9] Now when it was reported to Sanballat and to Tobiah and to Geshem the Arabian and to the rest of our enemies, that I had rebuilt the wall and that there was no breach was left in itthough even to that time I had not set up the doors in the gatesSanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, 'Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.'

It was certainly a very providential opportunity for Nehemiah to 'throw his views before the public,' when Geshem, Sanballat, and Tobiah invited and urged him to stop building the wall and hold a public discussion as to the right to build.

At the court of Sanballat was a friend of his, Geshem the Arabian, the head or chief of a tribe of Arabs, which we find, from the ancient Assyrian monuments recently discovered, had been planted in Samaria by Sargon, King of Assyria.

This man Geshem was therefore a Bedouin, a descendant of Esau.

These three, Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem, cannot conceal their disgust that anyone has been sent from Persia to look after the welfare of Jerusalem.

What will Geshem whisper?

Sanballat is to be there as the head of the Samaritans, Geshem as the head of the Arabians, and Nehemiah as the head of the Jews; and surely, meeting in a friendly way, and embued with a friendly spirit, nothing will be easier than quietly and peacefully to confer together, and then to arrange matters in a comfortable and satisfactory manner.