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4 When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the city wall, he became furious, and he mocked the Jews.
2 He spoke to the other provincial officials and army officers. He said, “These weak Jews will not be able to accomplish anything! They will never restore the city! Their God will not help them. They do not realize what a long time it would take to repair that wall. The only way they can get stones is by pulling them out of rubbish heaps. And the Babylonians burned the city, so those stones are probably weak anyway.”
3 Tobiah the Ammonite was standing beside Sanballat. He made fun of the Jews by saying, “Right! The wall that they are building is so weak that if a fox walked across the top of it, it would fall down!”
4 When I heard about what they were saying, I prayed to God and said, “O our God, listen to the way they are mocking us! Make them fail in their attempts to stop us, so that other people will mock them! Allow their enemies to capture them and force them to go to a foreign land! 5 They are guilty, and they have sinned against you. Do not take away their guilt, and do not ignore their sin! I am asking this because they are also causing others to be angry at the people who are rebuilding the wall!”
6 But we kept building the wall, and after some time, we finished the wall around the whole city to about half the necessary height. Everyone was determined to accomplish this.
7 But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the men from the land of Arabia, the men from the nation of Ammon, and the men from the city of Ashdod heard that we were continuing to repair the wall of Jerusalem and to fill in the gaps, they became furious. 8 All of them together made a plan to come and fight against the people of Jerusalem. They wanted to make the people inside the city confused and divided. 9 But we prayed to our God to protect us, and we stationed lookouts on the walls at all times to watch out for them.
10 Then the people of Judah started saying, “The people who are carrying the stones are getting worn out. There is too much rubbish. We are not going to be able to finish rebuilding the wall.”
11 Then our enemies started saying, “Before the Jews know we are coming, we will rush down on them and kill them and stop their work on the wall!’ ”
12 And when some of the Jews who lived near our enemies came to Jerusalem, they pleaded with us repeatedly, “Let our men return home so they can defend us!”
13 But I put guards behind the wall at the places where it was low or where there were gaps. I also had people from each family group stand guard with their swords, spears, and bows and arrows. 14 After I had inspected everything, I summoned the leading citizens and the city officials and many of the other people, and I said to them, “Do not be afraid of our enemies! The Lord is great and awesome, so think about what he can do. And fight to protect your families, your sons and daughters, your wives, and your homes!”
15 When our enemies learned that we had found out about their plan, they realized that God had kept them from launching a surprise attack. They decided not to attack us. So we all went back to working on the wall. Each person continued doing the same work as before. 16 But after that, only half of my servants worked on the wall. The other half of them stood guard armed with spears, shields, bows and arrows, and metal armor. Officers stood behind the workers and guards to encourage everyone and to give orders in case there was an attack. 17 Those who were building the wall and those who carried the heavy loads always had their weapons with them so that they would be prepared to fight off an attack. 18 Each builder worked with his sword strapped to his side. I stationed someone next to me who would blow a ram’s horn if we needed a signal.
19 Then I said to the leading citizens, the city officials, and many of the other people, “We are working over a very wide area, and we are far apart from each other along the wall. 20 But wherever you hear the man sounding the ram’s horn, gather around us at that place. Our God will fight for us!”
21 So we continued to work on rebuilding the wall. Half of the men served as guards and kept their weapons ready at all times. 22 At that time, I also said to the people, “Each worker and his servant must spend the night inside Jerusalem and not go home if they live outside the city. That way the city will have plenty of defenders even at night, and they can still work on the wall during the daytime.” 23 During that time none of us took off our clothes. I did not, and my brothers, my servants, and my personal bodyguard did not. Each of us always had our weapons with us, even when we were washing ourselves.