Keil & Delitzsch, on Neh 4:4

“Hear thou our God, for we are despised: turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them to be despised in a land of captivity.”

“When Nehemiah heard of these contemptuous words, he committed the matter to God, entreating Him to hear how they (the Jews) were become a scorn, i.e., a subject of contempt, to turn the reproach of the enemies upon their own head, and to give them up the plunder in a land of captivity, i.e., in a land in which they would dwell as captives. He supplicates, moreover, that God would not cover, i.e., forgive (Psa 85:3), their iniquity, and that their sin might not be blotted out from before His face, i.e., might not remain unpunished, "for they have provoked to wrath before the builders," i.e., openly challenged the wrath of God, by despising Him before the builders, so that they heard it. הכעים without an object, spoken of provoking the divine wrath by grievous sins; comp. Kg2 21:6 with Ch2 33:6.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.