¹⁹ But when Sanballat^(A) the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem^(B) the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us.^(C) “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against the king?”

Further Opposition to the Rebuilding

6 When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah,^(A) Geshem^(B) the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates—

² Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages^[a] on the plain of Ono.^(A)”

But they were scheming to harm me;