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6 Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arabian, and our other enemies learned that we had finished rebuilding the wall, and that there were now no more gaps in it. (However, we had not yet put the doors in the gates.) 2 So Sanballat and Geshem sent me a message that said, “We want to arrange to meet with you in one of the villages in the plain of Ono.” But I knew that they were saying this because they wanted to harm me.
3 So I sent messengers to tell them, “The work I am doing here is very important. I am not able to travel while it is going on. There is no reason for me to stop the work and leave it so that I can meet with you.”
4 They sent me the same message four times, and each time I refused them for this same reason.
5 Then Sanballat sent one of his servants to me bringing the same request for a fifth time. This time the message was written, but it was not sealed. Sanballat left the letter unsealed so that others would find out what it said, because he wanted to pressure me to meet with him. 6 The letter said, “The people in the countries around us are saying, and Geshem confirms that it is true, that you and the Jewish people are planning to rebel against King Artaxerxes. That is why you are rebuilding the wall. They are also saying that you intend to become the king of the Jews yourself. 7 These people are also saying that you have appointed prophets to make a proclamation about you in Jerusalem. They are saying, ‘The Jews now have a king of their own!’ King Artaxerxes will certainly hear these reports, and when he does, he will be very angry with you. So we really should meet together and talk about this.”
8 I sent a message back to him saying, “None of these things that you are saying are true. You are just making them up yourself.”
9 I knew that they were all just trying to frighten us. They thought, “The Jews will become so afraid that they will stop working on the wall, and they will never finish rebuilding it.” So I prayed, “O God, give me courage.”
10 Around this time I went to visit Shemaiah, the son of Delaiah and grandson of Mehetabel. I went to see him in his home, because he was not leaving his house. He was a priest, and he was trying to show that it was not safe for Jewish leaders to go out in public. He told me, “We are not safe even here. We need to go into the temple and lock the doors, because people are trying to kill you. One night they are going to come and kill you.”
11 I responded, “I am not the kind of man who would run away! Besides, I am the governor, and everyone knows me, so I could not save my life by trying to hide in the temple. I refuse to do it!”
12 All of a sudden I realized that God had not given Shemaiah a prophetic message for me. Instead, he was saying these things because Tobiah and Sanballat had paid him to say them. 13 They had paid him the money specifically to say things that would scare me. They were hoping they could make me sin by abandoning my responsibilities and hiding in the temple. If I had done that, they would have ruined my reputation and discredited me.
14 So I prayed, “My God, treat Tobiah and Sanballat the way they deserve for what they have done. Do the same for the female prophet Noadiah and all the other prophets who are trying to make me afraid.”
15 We finished rebuilding the wall on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Elul, after working on it for 52 days.
16 When all of our enemies learned that we had completed the rebuilding in such a short time, they realized that our God must have helped us. This made the people in the countries around us lose all of their confidence. 17 During this time, the leading citizens of Judah were writing many letters to Tobiah to give him information about me, and he was sending letters back to them with instructions. 18 Tobiah was married to the daughter of a powerful and influential member of the community, Shecaniah the son of Arah. His son Jehohanan was married to the daughter of another powerful and influential man, Meshullam the son of Berechiah. And so, for those reasons, many people in Judah had sworn oaths to be loyal to Tobiah. 19 The people who were loyal to Tobiah would also come and tell me what good things he was doing, and then they would report to him everything I said in response. Tobiah also sent me many letters to try to make me afraid.