The Plot to Kill Nehemiah

6 When it was reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and there was no breach left in it (although at that time I had not installed doors in the gates), ² Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me: “Come, let’s meet together in Kephirim^[a] in the Plain of Ono.” (However, they were planning to harm me.)

³ So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am working on an important project, and I am not able to come down. Why should the project stop while I leave it and come down to you?” ⁴ They sent messages like this to me four times, and I answered them that same way each time.

⁵ Then Sanballat sent his servant to me with a message like this for a fifth time, with an open letter in his hand. ⁶ In it was written, “It is rumored among the nations, and Gashmu^[b] also says that you and the Jews are planning to rebel. This is the reason you are building the wall. According to these reports, you will be their king. ⁷ You have also set up prophets to make a proclamation about you in Jerusalem: ‘A king is in Judah.’ Now reports like these will be heard by the king. So now come, let us consult with one another.”

⁸ So I sent a reply to him: “These things that you are saying have not been done, since you are simply making them up.”

⁹ So all of them were trying to intimidate us, thinking, “Their hands will grow weary of the work, and it will not be finished.”

So now, strengthen my hands!