Nehemiah, Chapter 6

1. Now it came to pass, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had built the wall, and that there was no broken place left in it; (though at that time I had not set up the doors on the gates;)    2. That Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief.    3. And I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, while I leave it, and come down to you?    4. Yet they sent to me four times in this way; and I answered them in the same manner.    5. Then Sanballat sent his servant to me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand;    6. In which was written, It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu says it, that you and the Jews think to rebel: for which reason you build the wall, that you may be their king, according to these words.    7. And you have also appointed prophets to preach about you at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah: and now shall it be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together.    8. Then I sent to him, saying, There are no such things done as you say, but you imagine them out of your own heart.    9. For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.    10. Afterward I came to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up in his house; and he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to slay you; yea, in the night will they come to slay you.    11. And I said, Should such a man as I flee? and who is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.    12. And, lo, I perceived that God had not sent him; but that he pronounced this prophecy against me: for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.    13. Therefore was he hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might have cause for an evil report, that they might reproach me.    14. My God, think on Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear.    15. So the wall was finished in the twenty fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty two days.    16. And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard of it, and all the heathen that were around us saw these things, they were brought very low in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was done by our God.    17. Moreover in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came to them.    18. For there were many in Judah sworn to him, because he was the son in law of Shechaniah the son of Arah; and his son Johanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah.    19. Also they reported his good deeds before me, and reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.