Nehemiah 6

Nehemiah 6:1 When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest[1] of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that no gap was left in it– though at that time I had not installed the doors in the city gates —

Nehemiah 6:2 Sanballat and Geshem sent me a message: “Come, let’s meet together in the villages of the Ono Valley.” They were planning to harm me.

Nehemiah 6:3 So I sent agents[2] to them, saying, “I am doing important work and cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?”

Nehemiah 6:4 Four times they sent me the same proposal, and I gave them the same reply.

Nehemiah 6:5 Sanballat’s boy, who had an open letter in his hand, sent me this same message a fifth time.

Nehemiah 6:6 In it was written: It is reported among the nations — and Geshem agrees — that you and the Jews plan to rebel. This is the reason you are building the wall. According to these reports, you are to become their king

Nehemiah 6:7, and have even set up the prophets in Jerusalem to cry out on your behalf, “There is a king in Judah.” The king will hear these rumors. So come, let’s confer together.

Nehemiah 6:8 Then I replied to him, “There is nothing to these rumors you are spreading; you are inventing them in your heart.”

Nehemiah 6:9 For they were all trying to intimidate us, saying, “They will drop their hands from the work, and it will never be finished.” But now, my God, strengthen my hands.

Nehemiah 6:10 I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was restricted to his home. He said: Let’s meet at the house of God, inside the temple. Let’s shut the temple doors because they’re coming to kill you. They’re coming to kill you tonight!

Nehemiah 6:11 But I said, “Should a man like me run?[3] How can someone like me enter the temple and stay alive? I will not go.”

Nehemiah 6:12 I noticed that God had not sent him because of the prophecy he had spoken against me. Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

Nehemiah 6:13 He was hired so that I would be intimidated, do as he suggested, sin, and get a bad reputation so that they could discredit me.

Nehemiah 6:14 My God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat for what they have done, as well as the prophetess Noadiah and the other prophets who wanted to intimidate me.

Nehemiah 6:15 The wall was completed in fifty-two days, on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul.

Nehemiah 6:16 When all our enemies heard this, all the surrounding nations were intimidated and lost their confidence, for they realized that our God had accomplished this task.

Nehemiah 6:17 During those days, the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them.

Nehemiah 6:18 For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, since he was a son-in-law of Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah.

Nehemiah 6:19 These nobles kept mentioning Tobiah’s good deeds to me, and they reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.

[1] יָתַר = survive, reserve, rest. Nehemiah 6:1.

[2] מַלְאָךְ = agent. Nehemiah 6:3.

[3] בָּרָח = run, run through, drive out. Nehemiah 6:11; 13:10, 28.