¹⁹ But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and ^(A)Geshem the Arab heard of it, ^(B)they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? ^(C)Are you rebelling against the king?”

⁶ In it was written, “It is reported among the nations, and Geshem^[a] also says it, that you and ^(A)the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king.

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.

⁴⁰ And they laughed at him. But he ^(A)put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was.

³⁶ Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even ^(A)chains and imprisonment.

⁵ For we have found this man a plague, ^(A)one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world and is a ringleader of ^(B)the sect of the Nazarenes.

¹² From then on ^(A)Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. ^(B)Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”

² And they began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man ^(A)misleading our nation and ^(B)forbidding us to give tribute to ^(C)Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, ^(D)a king.”