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1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), |
2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to do me harm. |
3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3And 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?” |
4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner. |
5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. |
6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6In it was written, “It is reported among the nations, and Geshem also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king. |
7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, ‘There is a king in Judah.’ And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together.” |
8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.” |
9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.” But now, O God, strengthen my hands. |
10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10Now when I went into the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his home, he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night.” |
11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11But I said, “Should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live? I will not go in.” |
12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. |
13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me. |
14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid. |
15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. |
16[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 16And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. |
17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17Moreover, in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them. |
18[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 18For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah: and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as his wife. |
19[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 19Also they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid. |
[an error occurred while processing this directive] | ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. |
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