“Hear, O our God,
We are despised.
Turn their taunt back on their own heads.
Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity.
Do not cover their guilt.
Do not let their sin be blotted out from your sight.
They have hurled insults in the face of the builders.”
Nehemiah does not respond with taunts of this own. Instead he prays to God. However, he wanted God to turn their taunts back on their own heads so that they would become captive to him. He wanted God not to cover over or blot out their guilt. They had insulted his fellow builders.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 