1 And it happened, when Sanballat, and Tobiah and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall, and that there was no break left in it (though at that time I had not set the doors on the gates),
2 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, Come, let us meet together in the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me harm.
3 And I sent messengers to them, saying, I [am] doing a great work, so I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you?
4 And they sent to me four times in this way. And I answered them in the same way.
5 Then Sanballat sent his servant to me in the same way the fifth time with an open letter in his hand, in which was written,
6 It is reported among the nations, and Gashmu says [it], that you and the Jews are thinking of rebelling, for this reason you build the wall, so that you may be their king, according to these words.
7 And you have also set up prophets to preach about you at Jerusalem, saying, [There is] a king in Judah. And now it shall be reported to the king according to these words. And now come and let us talk it over together.
8 And I sent to him saying, These things which you are saying are not happening, but you pretend them out of your own heart.
9 For they all were alarmers of us, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work so that it may not be done. And now, [O God], make my hands strong.
10 And I came to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabeel, who [was] shut up. And he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple. For they will come to kill you. Yea, in the night they will come to kill you.
11 And I said, Should [such] a man as I flee? And who, [being] as I [am], would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.
12 And, behold, I understood that God had not sent him, but that he said this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
13 Therefore he [was] hired that I should be afraid, and do so, and I should sin, and be for them an evil name, with which they might reproach me.
14 My God, think upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these works of theirs, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets who would have made me afraid.
15 And the wall was finished in the twenty-fifth [day] of Elul, in fifty-two days.
16 And it happened when all our enemies heard, and all the nations around us saw, they were very much lowered in their own eyes. For they saw that this work was done by our God.
17 And in those days the nobles of Judah were increasing their letters going to Tobiah; and Tobiah's came to them.
18 For many in Judah [were] sworn to him because he [was] the son-in-law of Shechaniah the son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah.
19 Also they reported his good deeds before me, and told my words to him. Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.