¹It happened, when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that no breach was left in it — even up to that time I had not set up doors in the gates —

²Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, Come, let us meet together in Kephirim, in the valley of Ono. But they were reckoning on doing evil to me.

³And I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work cease when I let it go and come down to you?

⁴They sent to me four times according to this word, and I gave them back according to this word.

⁵Sanballat sent to me according to this word, a fifth time, his boy, with an open letter in his hand.

⁶Written in it was: Among the nations it is heard, and Gashmu is saying, You and the Jews are reckoning on rebelling; for that reason you are rebuilding the wall, and you are becoming their king, according to these words.

⁷Also you have set up prophets to proclaim about you in Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah! And now it will be heard by the king according to these words. So now, come, and let us consult together.

⁸I sent to him, saying, It has not happened according to these words that you are saying, for out of your own heart you are inventing them.

⁹For they all were making us afraid, saying, Their hands will go slack from the work, and it will not be done. But now, strengthen my hands.

¹⁰And I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah son of Mehetabel, who was shut in. He said, Let us meet at the house of God, into the middle of the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you, and by night they are coming to kill you.

¹¹I said, Should a man like me flee? And who is like me, that would go into the temple and live? I will not go in.

¹²And I recognized, and look, God had not sent him; for he had spoken the prophecy against me, and Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

¹³He was hired for a purpose: so that I would be afraid, and act so, and sin; and it would become a bad name for them, so that they could reproach me.

¹⁴Remember, my God, Tobiah and Sanballat according to these works of his; and also Noadiah the prophetess and the rest of the prophets who were making me afraid.

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

¹⁶It happened, when all our enemies heard, that all the nations around us were afraid and fell exceedingly in their own eyes; and they knew that this work had been done from our God.

¹⁷Also in those days the nobles of Judah kept multiplying their letters going to Tobiah, and those of Tobiah kept coming to them.

¹⁸For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, for he was a son-in-law to Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah.

¹⁹Also they kept speaking of his good deeds before my face, and kept bringing my words out to him. Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.