Nehemiah 2:11-20

International Standard Version

¹¹ I arrived in Jerusalem and remained there for three days. ¹² Then I got up at night, along with a few men with me. I had not confided to any person what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. Furthermore, there was no other animal with me except for the one I was riding.

¹³ So I went out during the night through the Valley Gate toward Dragon’s^[a] Well, and from there to the Dung Gate, inspecting the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and burned by fire. ¹⁴ I proceeded to the Fountain Gate, and then to the King’s Pool, but there wasn’t sufficient clearance for the animal I was riding^[b] to pass. ¹⁵ I traveled the valley by night to inspect the wall, returning through the Valley Gate. ¹⁶ The local officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done—I informed neither the Judeans, nor the priests, nor the nobles, nor the officials, nor any of the rest who would be doing the work.

¹⁷ Later I told them, “You all are watching the predicament we’re in, how Jerusalem lies desolate, with its gates burned by fire. Let’s rebuild the Jerusalem wall so we’re no longer a disgrace.” ¹⁸ Then I told them how good my God had been to^[c] me, and about what the king had told me.

They replied, “Let’s get out there and build!” So they encouraged themselves to do good.

Nehemiah Replies to Sanballat

¹⁹ But when Sanballat the Horonite, his servant Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arab heard about it,^[d] they jeered at us and despised us when they said, “What is this thing that you’re doing? You’re rebelling against the king, aren’t you?”

²⁰ In reply to them, I said, “The God of Heaven will prosper us. That’s why we’re preparing to build. But as far as you’re concerned, there exists no ancestral heritage, no legal right, nor any historic claim in Jerusalem.