¹And it happened, when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, it burned in him, and he was angry greatly, and mocked at the Jews.

²He said before the face of his brothers and the army of Samaria, he said, What are the feeble Jews doing? Will they leave it to themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Will they bring the stones back to life out of the heaps of dust, burned as they are?

³And Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, Even what they are building, if a fox goes up, it will break through their wall of stones.

⁴Hear, our God, for we have become contempt; and turn back their reproach onto their own head, and give them over to plunder in a land of captivity.

⁵And do not cover over their guilt, and let not their sin be wiped out from before your face, for they have provoked to anger in front of the builders.

⁶And we rebuilt the wall, and all the wall was joined together up to its half, and the people had a heart to work.

⁷And it happened, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabs, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the healing of the walls of Jerusalem had gone up, and that the places broken through had begun to be stopped up, it burned in them exceedingly.

⁸And they conspired, all of them together, to come and fight against Jerusalem, and to make confusion for it.

⁹And we prayed to our God, and we stationed a guard over them by day and night, because of them.

¹⁰And Judah said, The strength of the burden-bearer has stumbled, and there is much dust, and we will not be able to build on the wall.

¹¹And our enemies said, They will not know, and will not see until we come into their midst, and kill them, and put an end to the work.

¹²And it happened, when the Jews, those who dwell beside them came, that they said to us ten times, From all the places where you turn back, they come upon us.

¹³And I stationed them in the lower parts of the place, behind the wall, in the open places; and I stationed the people by families with their swords, their spears, and their bows.

¹⁴And I saw, and I rose, and I said to the nobles, and to the officials, and to the rest of the people, Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, the great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.

¹⁵And it happened, when our enemies heard that it was known to us, that God broke their counsel, and we all returned to the wall, each one to his work.

¹⁶And it was, from that day, half of my boys were doing the work, and half of them were holding the spears, the shields, the bows, and the coats of mail; and the officials were behind all the house of Judah.

¹⁷Those who were building on the wall and those who were carrying burdens were loaded; with one hand he did the work, and the other held the weapon.

¹⁸And the builders, each one with his sword bound on his hips, were building; and the one who blew the horn was beside me.

¹⁹I said to the nobles, and to the officials, and to the rest of the people, The work is great and wide, and we are separated on the wall, far apart, each man from his brother.

²⁰In the place where you hear the sound of the horn, there you shall gather to us; our God will fight for us.

²¹And we were doing the work, and half of them kept hold of spears, from the coming up of the dawn until the going out of the stars.

²²Also in that time I said to the people, Let each man and his boy spend the night in the middle of Jerusalem, so they will be a guard for us by night and work by day.

²³And neither I nor my brothers nor my boys nor the men of the guard who were behind me — none of us was stripping off our garments; each man with his weapon at the waters.