Nehemiah 6:11
And I said, Should such a man as I flee? and who is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in. And I said, Should such a man as I flee? and who is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.
Nehemiah's answer was a refusal to flee and to go into the temple to save his life, declining to run or to hide himself away when his life was said to be in danger. Such retreat would have been unworthy of a man in his position, cowardly in appearance, contrary to the courage he had shown and to the faith in God he professed, and damaging to his reputation. To enter would have been to abandon his duty, to be diverted from his work, to compromise his faithfulness and to commit sin, and the preservation of his own life was not sufficient reason to do it.
The counsel to hide was offered under the claim of protecting him, yet it was a deceptive trap and snare laid by his enemies, and he discerned that it did not come from God. Its purpose was to frighten him into wrongdoing so that his enemies would gain grounds to discredit him with an evil report against him. Had he yielded, his example would have spread fear among the people and left the city undefended and unprotected.
His courage and trust in God in refusing to be intimidated and refusing to abandon his work to save himself provide an example for God's people to continue their work without fearing their enemies or yielding to them. The account holds him up as a noble and self-sacrificing example, set in contrast with the hatred, falsehood and treachery of Sanballat and Tobiah.