Nehemiah inspected the walls of Jerusalem

11-12 When I arrived in Jerusalem, I did not tell anyone what thoughts God had given to me about what I should do there. Three days after I arrived in Jerusalem, I went out of the city in the evening, taking a few other men with me. I was riding a donkey; we had no other animals with us.

13 We left the city, going out through the Valley Gate, then past the well called the Jackal (OR, Dragon’s) Well, and then past the gate called the Rubbish/Garbage Gate. We inspected all the walls that had been broken down and all the gates that had been burned down. 14 Then we went to the Fountain Gate and to the pool called the King’s Pool, but my donkey could not get through the narrow opening (OR, the rubble). 15 So we turned back and went along the Kidron Valley. We inspected the wall there before we turned back/around and entered the city again at the Valley Gate. 16 The city officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because I had not told anyone about what I planned to do. I had not said anything about it to the Jewish leaders or the officials or the priests or any of the others who would be helping me in the work that I wanted to do.

17 But now I said to them, “You all know very well the terrible things that have happened to our city. The city is ruined; even the gates are burned down. So we should rebuild the city wall. If we do that, we will no longer feel humiliated/disgraced.” 18 Then I told them about how God had kindly/graciously helped me when I talked to the king, and what the king had said to me.

They immediately replied, “Let’s start rebuilding!” So they started to do this good work.

19 But when Sanballat, Tobiah, and Gershom the Arab king of the Kedar region heard about what we planned to do, they made fun of us and ridiculed us. They said, “What is this work that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king again?” [RHQ]

20 But I replied, “Our God who is/rules in heaven will help our plans to succeed. But as for you, you have no right to decide anything about this city, because you have not participated in what has happened in this city in previous years.”