Sanballat’s Conspiracy
And it happened, when it was heard by Sanballat and Tobiah, and by Geshem the Arab, and by the rest of our enemies, that I had built the wall and that no breach was left in it — though up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates —
that Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come, and let us meet together in the villages in the plain of Ono.” But they were plotting to do me evil.
And I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?”
And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same way.
Then Sanballat sent his young man to me in this way a fifth time, with an open letter in his hand.
Written in it was: “It is heard among the nations, and Gashmu says it, that you and the Jews are plotting to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And you are to be their king, according to these words.
And you have also set up prophets to proclaim about you in Jerusalem, saying, ‘There is a king in Judah!’ And now it will be heard by the king according to these words. So now, come, and let us take counsel together.”
And I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say have happened; you are inventing them out of your own heart.”
For they were all making us afraid, saying, “Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.” But now — strengthen my hands.
And I came to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, and he was shut in. And he said, “Let us meet at the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple; for they are coming to kill you — and by night they are coming to kill you.”
And I said, “Should a man like me flee? And who, being such as I, could go into the temple and live? I will not go in.”
And I recognized — and there it was: God had not sent him. For he had spoken the prophecy against me, and Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
He was hired for this: that I should be afraid, and act so, and sin — and it would be to them an evil name, so that they might reproach me.
Remember, my God, Tobiah and Sanballat, according to these deeds of his; and also Noadiah the prophetess, and the rest of the prophets who were making me afraid.
Completion of the Wall
And the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth of Elul — in fifty-two days.
And it happened, when all our enemies heard, and all the nations around us saw, that they fell greatly in their own eyes; and they knew that this work had been done by our God.
Also in those days the nobles of Judah were multiplying their letters going to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s were coming to them.
For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah, and Jehohanan his son had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah.
They were also speaking of his good deeds before me, and carrying my words out to him. Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.