Nehemiah 4

4 ¹ When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he was furious and seething with rage, and he ridiculed the Jews. ² He said in front of his brothers and the army of Samaria, "What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore the wall for themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a single day? Can they bring stones back to life out of the heaps of rubble, charred as they are?"

³ Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, "That stone wall they are building—even if a fox climbed up on it, he would break it down!"

⁴ Hear us, our Father, for we are despised. Turn their taunts back on their own heads, and hand them over as plunder to a land of exile. ⁵ Do not overlook their guilt, and do not let their sin be wiped from your sight, for they have hurled insults in the face of the builders.

⁶ So we rebuilt the wall until all of it was joined together to half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.

⁷ But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the repairs to Jerusalem's walls were making progress and the gaps were beginning to close, they were filled with rage. ⁸ They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to throw it into confusion.

⁹ But we prayed to our Father and posted a guard against them day and night.

¹⁰ Meanwhile the people of Judah said, "The workers are losing their strength, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall." ¹¹ And our enemies said, "Before they know it or see us, we will be right among them; we will kill them and put an end to the work."

¹² Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, "Wherever you turn, they will come against us."

¹³ So I stationed people behind the lowest sections of the wall, in the exposed places, positioning them by families with their swords, spears, and bows. ¹⁴ After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, "Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Sovereign Father, great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and daughters, your wives and your homes."

¹⁵ When our enemies heard that we knew of their plot and that our Father had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work. ¹⁶ From that day on, half of my men did the work while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows, and armor. The officers stationed themselves behind all the people of Judah ¹⁷ who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon with the other, ¹⁸ and each of the builders wore his sword strapped to his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed beside me. ¹⁹ Then I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, "The work is vast and spread out, and we are separated from one another along the wall." ²⁰ "Wherever you hear the trumpet sound, rally to us there. Our Father will fight for us!"

²¹ So we kept working, with half the men holding spears, from the break of dawn until the stars came out. ²² At that time I also told the people, "Let everyone and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night, so they can serve as guards by night and laborers by day." ²³ So neither I, nor my brothers, nor my men, nor the guards who followed me ever took off our clothes; each kept his weapon at hand, even when going for water.