Plots Against the Father's Work
6 1 When word reached Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and that no gap was left in it — though even then I had not yet set the doors in the gates 2 —Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: "Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono." But they were plotting to harm me.
3 So I sent messengers to them with this reply: "I am doing a great work and cannot come down. Why should the work stop just for me to leave it and come down to you?"
4 Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer. 5 Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his servant to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter. 6 In it was written: "It is reported among the nations — and Geshem confirms it — that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and that this is why you are building the wall. According to these reports, you are about to become their king." 7 "You have even appointed prophets to proclaim about you in Jerusalem, 'There is a king in Judah!' Now this report will reach the king. So come, let us talk this over."
8 I sent him this reply: "Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are making all of this up." 9 They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, "Their hands will grow too weak for the work, and it will never be finished." But now, my Father, strengthen my hands.
10 One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his home. He said, "Let us meet in the house of our Father, inside the temple, and shut the temple doors, because they are coming to kill you — by night they are coming to kill you."
11 But I said, "Should a man like me run away? Should someone like me go into the temple just to save his life? I will not go!" 12 I realized that our Father had not sent him, but that he had spoken this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 13 He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would act in fear and sin, and then they could give me a bad name and discredit me. 14 Remember, my Father, Tobiah and Sanballat for what they have done, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who have been trying to frighten me.
The Father Completes the Wall
15 So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days. a a v15 Elul is the sixth month of the Hebrew calendar, falling in late summer (around August–September). 16 When all our enemies heard of it and all the surrounding nations saw it, they lost their confidence, for they realized that this work had been accomplished with the help of our Father. 17 In those days, too, the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and replies from Tobiah kept coming back to them. 18 For many in Judah were bound to him by oath, since he was a son-in-law of Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. 19 Moreover, they kept reporting his good deeds to me and carrying my words back to him. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.