¹And it came to pass, when it came to the ear of Sanballat and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, that I had built the wall, and that there was not a single breach remaining in it, even though at that time I had not installed doors in the gates, ²that Sanballat and Geshem sent word to me and said, “Come and let us meet together in the villages in the plain of Ono.” But they were plotting to do me harm. ³So I sent messengers to them, and I said, “I am carrying out a major work, and I will not be able to come down. Why should the work stop, while I leave it and go down to you?” ⁴Then they sent word to me in the same way four times, and I replied to them in the same way. ⁵Then Sanballat sent his servant to me in the same way for a fifth time, with the letter open in his hand. ⁶In it was written, “Among the nations it is reported, and Gashmu states, that you and the Jews are planning to rebel, which is why you are building the wall, and that you will be their king, in accordance with these things. ⁷And you have also appointed prophets to make proclamation about you in Jerusalem, saying, ‘The king is in Judah.’ So now, let it be reported to the king, in accordance with these things. Or come now, and let us take counsel together.” ⁸At this I sent word to him and said, “No such thing as what you say has happened, for you are devising them in your own heart.” ⁹For they were all intimidating us, saying, “The strength of their hands for the work will ebb away, and it will not be done.” “But now, strengthen my hands.” ¹⁰Then I went to the house of Shemaiah, the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was confined there, and he said, “Let us meet at the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you, and it is tonight that they are coming to kill you.” ¹¹But I said, “Will a man such as myself flee? And who such as I would go into the temple for his life? I shall not go.” ¹²And I became aware that God had not sent him, but that he had spoken the prophecy against me, and that Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. ¹³He was hired for a purpose – so that I should be afraid and do that, and so sin, and they would have an ill report with which to reproach me. ¹⁴“Remember, O God of mine, Tobiah and Sanballat, according to these works of theirs, and also Noadiah the prophetess, and the rest of the prophets who were intimidating me.” ¹⁵And the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. ¹⁶And it came to pass, when all our enemies heard this, that all the nations around us feared and were very downcast, and they knew that this work had been done by inducement from our God. ¹⁷Also in those days the nobles of Judah wrote many letters which went to Tobiah, and those of Tobiah came to them. ¹⁸For there were many in Judah who had sworn allegiance to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shechaniah the son of Arah, and Jehohanan his son had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as his wife. ¹⁹They also recounted his good news to me, and my words were expounded to him, but Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.