Jubilee2000 - Nehemiah - 6

6:1  Now it came to pass when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem, the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had built the wall and [that] there was no breach left in it (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates),

6:2  that Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in [one of] the villages in the plain of Ono. But they had thought to do me evil.

6:3  And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I [am] doing a great work so that I cannot come down; why should the work cease, whilst I leave it and come down to you?

6:4  Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort, and I answered them after the same manner.

6:5  Then Sanballat sent his servant to say the same thing for the fifth time with an open letter in his hand,

6:6  in which [was] written, It is reported among the Gentiles, and Gashmu saith [it], [that] thou and the Jews think to rebel, for which cause thou dost build the wall, that thou may be their king, according to these words.

6:7  And thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying, [There is] a king in Judah! And now these words shall be heard by the king. Come now, therefore, and let us take counsel together.

6:8  Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou dost feign them out of thine own heart.

6:9  For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it not be done. Now, therefore, [O God], strengthen my hands.

6:10  Afterward I came in secret unto the house of Shemaiah, the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabeel, who [was] shut up; and he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple; for they are coming to slay thee; yea, tonight they will come to slay thee.

6:11  Then I said, Should such a man as I flee? And who is there as I who could go into the temple and live? I will not go in.

6:12  And I perceived that God had not sent him, but that he pronounced this prophecy against me, for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

6:13  For he was bribed to make me be thus afraid and sin and [that] they might have [matter] for an evil report, that they might reproach me.

6:14  My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works and on the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets, that [did things to] put me in fear.

6:15  So the wall was finished the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.

6:16  And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard [of it], all the Gentiles that [were] about us feared, and they were much cast down in their own eyes, and they knew that this work was wrought of our God.

6:17  Likewise, in those days the principals of Judah sent many letters unto Tobiah, and [the letters] of Tobiah came unto them.

6:18  For [there were] many in Judah sworn unto him, because he [was] the son-in-law of Shechaniah, the son of Arah; and his son Johanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam, the son of Berechiah.

6:19  They also reported his good deeds before me and uttered my words to him. [And] Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear.: