Let them say, for they will have their say out, but they will end it all the sooner if you take no notice of it.
Let us try for the future to be thick-skinned, and when Gashmu's tongue is whispering, and whenever some busybody like Sanballat repeats Gashmu's words to us, let us act as Nehemiah did.

Let us take no notice of the repeated tittle-tattle.
Yet, although we may practically ignore the gossiping tongue, if we are naturally sensitive and highly strung we cannot help feeling some sting from the unkind or untrue speech.

Poor Nehemiah, unmoved though he was by the gossip, yet feels it necessary to remember the meaning of his name, and to turn from Sanballat's letter to 'the Lord my Comforter.' 'O God, strengthen my hands.' So he cries from the depths of his soul, and so he was comforted.
Sanballat now feels that he is attempting an impossibility.

It is of no use trying himself to move Nehemiah, for Nehemiah is thoroughly on his guard against him.

If he reaches him at all, he must do so through others, whom Nehemiah does not suspect.