Conspiracy Against Nehemiah

6 Now when ^(A)Sanballat and Tobiah and ^(B)Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (^(C)although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), ² Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of ^(D)Ono.” But they intended to do me harm. ³ And I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” ⁴ And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner. ⁵ In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. ⁶ In it was written, “It is reported among the nations, and Geshem^[a] also says it, that you and ^(E)the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king. ⁷ And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, ‘There is a king in Judah.’ And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together.” ⁸ Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.” ⁹ For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.” But now, O God,^[b] strengthen my hands.

¹⁰ Now when I went into the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was ^(F)confined to his home, he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night.” ¹¹ But I said, “Should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live?^[c] I will not go in.” ¹² And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, ^(G)but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. ¹³ For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me. ^14 (H)Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also ^(I)the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid.

The Wall Is Finished

¹⁵ So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. ¹⁶ And ^(J)when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, ^(K)for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. ¹⁷ Moreover, in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah's letters came to them. ¹⁸ For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of ^(L)Arah: and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of ^(M)Meshullam the son of Berechiah as his wife. ¹⁹ Also they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.

Rebuilding the Altar

3 ^(A)When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem. ² Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and ^(B)Zerubbabel the son of ^(C)Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, ^(D)as it is written in the Law of Moses the ^(E)man of God. ³ They set the altar in its place, ^(F)for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and ^(G)they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening. ^4 (H)And they kept the Feast of Booths, ^(I)as it is written, ^(J)and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule, as each day required, ⁵ and after that the regular burnt ^(K)offerings, the offerings at the new moon ^(L)and at all the appointed feasts of the Lord, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the Lord. ⁶ From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. ⁷ So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, ^(M)and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians ^(N)to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, ^(O)according to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia.

Rebuilding the Temple

⁸ Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, ^(P)Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and ^(Q)Jeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They ^(R)appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to ^(S)supervise the work of the house of the Lord. ⁹ And ^(T)Jeshua with his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together ^(U)supervised the workmen in the house of God, along with the ^(V)sons of Henadad and the Levites, their sons and brothers.

¹⁰ And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, ^(W)according to the directions of David king of Israel. ¹¹ And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord,

And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. ¹² But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, ^(Y)old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, ¹³ so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people's weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.