NehemiahChapter 6

Tap any verse to comment or suggest a better wording.

¹Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall. They heard that not one gap was left. But at that time I had not yet hung the doors in the gates. ²So Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: "Come, let's meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono." But they were planning to hurt me. ³So I sent messengers to them with this answer: "I am doing a great work, and I can't come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?" ⁴They sent me the same message four times. Each time I gave them the same answer. ⁵The fifth time, Sanballat sent his young servant to me with the same message. In his hand was a letter that was not sealed. ⁶It said, "People among the nations are saying that you and the Jews are planning to rebel. Geshem says it's true. That is why you are building the wall. These reports say you plan to become their king. ⁷They say you have even chosen prophets in Jerusalem to announce about you, 'There is a king in Judah!' Soon the king will hear these reports. So come, let's talk this over together." ⁸Then I sent him this answer: "Nothing you are saying is true. You are making it all up in your own mind." ⁹They were all trying to scare us. They thought, "Their hands will get too weak to work. The wall will never be finished." But now, my God, make my hands strong. ¹⁰Later I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel. He was shut in at his house. He said, "Let's meet at the house of God, inside the temple. Let's shut the temple doors. They are coming to kill you. They are coming at night to kill you!" ¹¹But I answered, "Should a man like me run away? Should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I won't go!" ¹²I understood that God had not sent him. He had spoken this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had paid him. ¹³They had paid him to scare me. They wanted me to sin by doing what he said. Then they could give me a bad name and shame me. ¹⁴O my God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat for what they have done. Also remember Noadiah the prophetess and the other prophets. They tried to scare me. ¹⁵So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Elul. It took fifty-two days. ¹⁶All our enemies heard about this. All the nations around us were afraid and lost heart. They knew that this work had been done by our God. ¹⁷In those days the nobles of Judah also sent many letters to Tobiah. And Tobiah's letters kept coming back to them. ¹⁸Many people in Judah had made a promise with an oath to stand with him. He was the son-in-law of Shecaniah son of Arah. And his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah. ¹⁹These nobles also kept telling me about the good things Tobiah had done. Then they carried my words back to him. And Tobiah sent letters to scare me.