World English Bible

Chapter 6

¹Now it happened, when it was reported to Sanballat and Tobiah, and to Geshem the Arabian, and to the rest of our enemies, that I had built the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though even to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates;) ²that 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 mischief. ³I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I can’t come down: why should the work cease, while I leave it, and come down to you? ⁴They sent to me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner. ⁵Then sent Sanballat his servant to me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand, ⁶in which was written, It is reported among the nations, and Gashmu says it, that you and the Jews think to rebel; for which cause you are building the wall: and you would be their king, according to these words. ⁷You have also appointed prophets to preach of you at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah: and now shall it be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together. ⁸Then I sent to him, saying, There are no such things done as you say, but you feign them out of your own heart. ⁹For they all would have made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it not be done. But now, God, strengthen you my hands. ¹⁰I went 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, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to kill you; yes, in the night will they come to kill you. ¹¹I said, Should such a man as I flee? and who is there that, being such as I, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in. ¹²I discerned, and behold, God had not sent him; but he pronounced this prophecy against me: and Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. ¹³For this cause was he hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me. ¹⁴Remember, my God, Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and also the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear. ¹⁵So the wall was finished in the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. ¹⁶It happened, when all our enemies heard of it, that all the nations that were about us feared, and were much cast down in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was worked of our God. ¹⁷Moreover in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came to them. ¹⁸For there were many in Judah sworn to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah; and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as wife. ¹⁹Also they spoke of his good deeds before me, and reported my words to him. Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear.