Chapter 6

¹ Now it came to pass, when Sanaballat, and Tobias, and Gesam the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had built the wall, ¹and that there was no opening left therein; (but hitherto I had not set up the doors on the gates;) ² that Sanaballat and Gesam sent to me, saying, Come and let us meet together in the villages in the plain of Ono. But they were plotting to do me mischief. ³ So I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work,

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and I shall not be able to come down, lest the work should cease: as soon as I shall have finished it, I will come down to you. ⁴ And they sent to me again to this effect; and I sent them ²word accordingly.

⁵ Then Sanaballat sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. ⁶ And in it was written, It has been ³reported among the Gentiles that thou and the Jews are planning to revolt: therefore thou art building the wall, and thou wilt be a king to them. ⁷ And moreover thou has appointed prophets to thyself, that thou mightest dwell in Jerusalem as a king over Juda: and now these words will be reported to the king. Now then, come, let us take counsel together. ⁸ And I sent to him, saying, It has not happened according to these words, even as thou sayest, for thou framest them falsely out of thy heart. ⁹ For all were trying to alarm us, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from this work, and it shall not be done. Now therefore I have strengthened my hands.

¹⁰ And I came into the house of Semei the son of Dalaia the Son of Metabeel, and he was shut up; and he said, Let us assemble together in the house of God, in the midst of it, and let us shut the doors of it; for they are coming by night to slay thee. ¹¹ And I said, ⁴Who is the man that shall enter into the house, that he may live? ¹² And I observed, and, behold, God had not sent him, for the prophecy was a fable devised against me: ¹³ and Tobias and Sanaballat had hired against me a multitude, that I might be frightened, and do this, and sin, and become to them an ill name, that they might reproach me.

¹⁴ Remember, O God, Tobias and Sanaballat, according to these their deeds, and the ⁵prophetess Noadia, and the rest of the prophets who tried to alarm me.

¹⁵ So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. ¹⁶ And it came to pass, when all our enemies heard of it, that all the nations round about us feared, and great alarm ⁶fell upon them, and they knew that it was of our God that this work should be finished.

¹⁷ And in those days letters came to Tobias from many nobles of Juda, and those of Tobias came to them. ¹⁸ For many in Juda were bound to him by oath, because he was son-in-law of Sechenias the son of Herae; and Jonan his son had taken the daughter of Mesulam the son of Barachia to wife. ¹⁹ And they reported his words to me, and carried out my words to him: and Tobias sent letters to terrify me.