Adversaries Oppose the Rebuilding

4 Now when ^(A)the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel,

¹¹ all the vessels of gold and of silver were 5,400. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up, when the exiles were brought up from Babylonia to Jerusalem.

⁹ for ^(A)a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and ^(B)there are many adversaries.

^25 (A)Know therefore and understand that ^(B)from the going out of the word to restore and ^(C)build Jerusalem to the coming of an ^(D)anointed one, a ^(E)prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again^[a] with squares and moat, ^(F)but in a troubled time.

Daniel Interprets the Handwriting

¹³ Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king answered and said to Daniel, “You are that Daniel, one of ^(A)the exiles of Judah, whom the king my father brought from Judah.

Opposition to the Work

4 ^[a] Now when ^(A)Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. ² And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of ^(B)Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves?^[b] Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?” ^3 (C)Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Yes, what they are building—^(D)if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!” ^4 (E)Hear, O our God, for we are despised. ^(F)Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. ^5 (G)Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders.

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

^7 [c] But when ^(H)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 that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. ^8 (I)And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. ⁹ And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.

¹⁰ In Judah it was said,^[d] “The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble. By ourselves we will not be able to rebuild the wall.” ¹¹ And our enemies said, “They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work.”

¹⁶ Then the returned exiles did so. Ezra the priest selected men,^[a] heads of fathers' houses, according to their fathers' houses, each of them designated by name. On the first day of the tenth month they sat down to examine the matter;

⁷ And a proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the returned exiles that they should assemble at Jerusalem,

⁹ For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylonia, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, ^(A)for the good hand of his God was on him.