¹⁹ But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official^[a] and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”^(A)

Hostile Plots Thwarted

4 ^[a]Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he mocked the Jews.^{(A) 2} He said in the presence of his associates and of the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it by themselves?^[b] Will they offer sacrifice? Will they finish it in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish—burned ones at that?”^{(B) 3} Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “That stone wall they are building—any fox going up on it would break it down!”^{(C) 4} Hear, O our God, for we are despised; turn their taunt back on their own heads, and give them over as plunder in a land of captivity.^{(D) 5} Do not cover their guilt, and do not let their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have raged against the builders.^[c](E)

⁶ So we rebuilt the wall, and all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

^7 [d]But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and the gaps were beginning to be closed, they were very angry^{(F) 8} and all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. ⁹ So we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.^(G)