The Work Ridiculed
And it happened, when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, that he burned with anger and was greatly vexed, and he mocked the Jews.
And he said before his brothers and the force of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they leave it to themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish in a day? Will they bring the stones back to life out of the heaps of dust — and they burned?”
And Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Even what they are building — if a fox went up, he would break down their wall of stones.”
Hear, our God, for we have become an object of contempt; and turn back their reproach on their own head, and give them as plunder in a land of captivity.
And do not cover over their iniquity, and let their sin not be blotted out from before you; for they have provoked you in front of the builders.
So we built the wall, and all the wall was joined together to half its height; and the people had a heart to work.
And it happened, when Sanballat heard, and Tobiah, and the Arabs, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, that healing had gone up for the walls of Jerusalem — that the breaches had begun to be closed — that they burned with great anger.
And they all conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem, and to make confusion for it.
Discouragement Overcome
And we prayed to our God, and set a guard against them day and night, because of them.
And Judah said, “The strength of the burden-bearer has stumbled, and the rubble is much; and we ourselves are not able to build on the wall.”
And our adversaries said, “They will not know, and they will not see, until we come into their midst and kill them, and stop the work.”
And it happened, when the Jews living beside them came, that they said to us ten times, from all the places: “You must return to us.”
So I stationed people in the lowest parts of the place, behind the wall, in the exposed spots; and I stationed the people by families with their swords, their spears, and their bows.
And I looked, and I rose up, and said to the nobles, and to the deputies, and to the rest of the people: “Do not be afraid before them. Remember the Lord, the great and the fearful, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your houses.”
And it happened, when our enemies heard that it was known to us, and that God had frustrated their counsel, that we all returned to the wall, each to his own work.
And it happened from that day on that half of my young men were doing the work, and half of them were holding the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the coats of mail; and the officers were behind all the house of Judah.
Those building on the wall, and those carrying burdens, were loading: with one of his hands doing the work, and one holding the weapon.
And the builders, each had his sword bound at his waist, and were building; and the one sounding the horn was beside me.
And I said to the nobles, and to the deputies, and to the rest of the people, “The work is much and wide, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another.
In the place where you hear the sound of the horn, there gather to us. Our God will fight for us.”
So we were doing the work, and half of them were holding the spears, from the rising of the dawn until the coming out of the stars.
Also at that time I said to the people, “Let each man and his young man lodge inside Jerusalem, so that they may be a guard for us by night and a workforce by day.”
And neither I, nor my brothers, nor my young men, nor the men of the guard who were behind me — none of us took off our clothes; each with his weapon at the water.