¹⁷ Then I said to them, “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies ^[a]waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be ^(A)a reproach.” ¹⁸ And I told them of ^(B)the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me.

So they said, “Let us rise up and build.” Then they ^(C)set^[b] their hands to this good work.

¹⁹ But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us, and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? ^(D)Will you rebel against the king?”

²⁰ So I answered them, and said to them, “The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build, ^(E)but you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem.”