Nehemiah 6

1Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that not one gap was left in it, though by then I had not yet hung the doors in the gates. 2Sanballat and Geshem sent me a message: “Come, let us meet together at Kephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they were planning to harm me. 3So I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am doing a great work and cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it to come down to you?” 4Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.

5The fifth time, Sanballat sent his servant to me with the same message, and he had an open letter in his hand. 6In it was written: “It is reported among the nations, and Geshem confirms it, that you and the Jews are planning to revolt. That is why you are building the wall. According to these reports, you are about to become their king. 7You have even appointed prophets to announce about you in Jerusalem, ‘There is a king in Judah!’ Now this report will reach the king. So come, let us talk this over together.”

8I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying has happened. You are making it all up in your own mind.” 9They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will grow too weak for the work, and it will never be finished.” But now, O God, strengthen my hands. 10One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his home. He said, “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and shut the temple doors, because they are coming to kill you. They are coming at night to kill you!” 11But I said, “Should a man like me run away? And could someone like me go into the temple and live? I will not go in!” 12Then I realized that God had not sent him. He had spoken this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 13He had been hired to frighten me into doing this and sinning, so that they could give me a bad name and discredit me.

14Remember, my God, what Tobiah and Sanballat have done, and also Noadiah the prophetess and the rest of the prophets who have been trying to frighten me. 15So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.

16When all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and lost all their confidence, for they knew that this work had been done with the help of our God. 17Also in those days the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and letters from Tobiah kept coming to them. 18Many in Judah were bound to him by oath, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. 19They kept telling me about his good deeds, and then they reported to him what I said. And Tobiah kept sending letters to frighten me.