Nehemiah 6

1. Now it came to pass, 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 breach left in it (though at that time I had not set the doors on the gates),

2. That Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together in one of 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 this word four times. 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 proclaim of 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, “There are no such things done as you say, but you are inventing them in your own mind,”

9. For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, “Their hands shall be weakened from the work so that it may not be done.” Now therefore, O God, make my hands strong.

10. And I came to the house of Shemaiah, the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabel, 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 discerned 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 made afraid, and do so, and I should sin, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.

14. Remember, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets who would have put me in fear.

15. And the wall was finished in the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days.

16. And it came to pass when all our enemies heard, and all the nations around us saw these things, they lost confidence in their own eyes, for they perceived that this work was done by our God.

17. And in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah; and Tobiah’s letters 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 married the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah.

19. Also they spoke of his good deeds before me and told my words to him. Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear.