Attempts to Discourage the Builders

6 When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies^(A) heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that no gap was left in it^(B)—though at that time I had not installed the doors in the city gates^(C)— ² Sanballat and Geshem^(D) sent me a message: “Come, let’s meet together in the villages of^[a] the Ono Valley.”^(E) They were planning to harm me.

³ So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing important work and cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?” ⁴ Four times they sent me the same proposal, and I gave them the same reply.

⁵ Sanballat^(F) sent me this same message a fifth time by his aide, who had an open letter in his hand. ⁶ In it was written:

It is reported among the nations—and Geshem^[b](G) agrees—that you and the Jews plan to rebel. This is the reason you are building the wall. According to these reports, you are to become their king ⁷ and have even set up the prophets in Jerusalem to proclaim on your behalf, “There is a king in Judah.”^(H) These rumors will be heard by the king. So come, let’s confer together.

⁸ Then I replied to him, “There is nothing to these rumors you are spreading; you are inventing them in your own mind.”^{(I) 9} For they were all trying to intimidate^(J) us, saying, “They will drop their hands from^[c] the work,^(K) and it will never be finished.”

But now, my God, strengthen my hands.^(L)