Then I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel. He was confined to his home. He said,“Let’s set up a time to meet in the house of God, within the temple. Let’s close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. It will surely be at night that they will come to kill you.”
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11But I replied,“Should a man like me run away? Would someone like me flee to the temple in order to save his life? I will not go!”
12I recognized the fact that God had not sent him, for he had spoken the prophecy against me as a hired agent of Tobiah and Sanballat.
13He had been hired to scare me so that I would do this and thereby sin. They would thus bring reproach on me and I would be discredited.
14Remember, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat in light of these actions of theirs– also Noadiah the prophetess and the other prophets who were trying to scare me!
9All of them were wanting to scare us, supposing,“Their hands will grow slack from the work, and it won’t get done.” So now, strengthen my hands!
1Opposition to the Rebuilding Efforts Continues When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and no breach remained in it(even though up to that time I had not positioned doors in the gates),
2Sanballat and Geshem sent word to me saying,“Come on! Let’s set up a time to meet together at Kephirim in the plain of Ono.” Now they intended to do me harm.
3So I sent messengers to them saying,“I am engaged in an important work, and I am unable to come down. Why should the work come to a halt when I leave it to come down to you?”
3I said to them,“The gates of Jerusalem must not be opened in the early morning, until those who are standing guard close the doors and lock them. Position residents of Jerusalem as guards, some at their guard stations and some near their homes.”
11Our adversaries also boasted,“Before they are aware or anticipate anything, we will come in among them and kill them, and we will bring this work to a halt!”
12So it happened that the Jews who were living near them came and warned us repeatedly about all the schemes they were plotting against us.
6During all this time I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes of Babylon, I had gone back to the king. After some time I had requested leave of the king,
7and I returned to Jerusalem. Then I discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah by supplying him with a storeroom in the courts of the temple of God.
15I continued up the valley during the night, inspecting the wall. Then I turned back and came to the Valley Gate, and so returned.
16The officials did not know where I had gone or what I had been doing, for up to this point I had not told any of the Jews or the priests or the nobles or the officials or the rest of the workers.
17Then I said to them,“You see the problem that we have: Jerusalem is desolate and its gates are burned. Come on! Let’s rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that this reproach will not continue.”
18Then I related to them how the good hand of my God was on me and what the king had said to me. Then they replied,“Let’s begin rebuilding right away!” So they readied themselves for this good project.
8All of them conspired together to move with armed forces against Jerusalem and to create a disturbance in it.
9So we prayed to our God and stationed a guard to protect against them both day and night.
9A Concluding Oracle The LORD’s message came to me as follows:
10“Choose some people from among the exiles, namely, Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, all of whom have come from Babylon, and when you have done so go to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah.
21But I warned them and said,“Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you repeat this, I will forcibly remove you!” From that time on they did not show up on the Sabbath.
22Then I directed the Levites to purify themselves and come and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy.For this please remember me, O my God, and have pity on me in keeping with your great love.
4I took them to the LORD’s temple. I took them into the room where the disciples of the prophet Hanan son of Igdaliah stayed. That room was next to the one where the temple officers stayed and above the room where Maaseiah son of Shallum, one of the doorkeepers of the temple, stayed.
14When I had made an inspection, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people,“Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the great and awesome Lord, and fight on behalf of your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your families!”
15It so happened that when our adversaries heard that we were aware of these matters, God frustrated their intentions. Then all of us returned to the wall, each to his own work.
11Nehemiah Arrives in Jerusalem So I came to Jerusalem. When I had been there for three days,
12I got up during the night, along with a few men who were with me. But I did not tell anyone what my God was putting on my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no animals with me, except for the one I was riding.
19When the evening shadows began to fall on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be closed. I further directed that they were not to be opened until after the Sabbath. I positioned some of my young men at the gates so that no load could enter on the Sabbath day.
22At that time I instructed the people,“Let every man and his coworker spend the night in Jerusalem and let them be guards for us by night and workers by day.”
6Written in it were the following words:“Among the nations it is rumored(and Geshem has substantiated this) that you and the Jews have intentions of revolting, and for this reason you are building the wall. Furthermore, according to these rumors you are going to become their king.
7You have also established prophets to announce in Jerusalem on your behalf,‘We have a king in Judah!’ Now the king is going to hear about these rumors. So come on! Let’s talk about this.”
8Let it be known to the king that we have gone to the province of Judah, to the temple of the great God. It is being built with large stones, and timbers are being placed in the walls. This work is being done with all diligence and is prospering in their hands.
9We inquired of those elders, asking them,‘Who gave you the authority to rebuild this temple and to complete this structure?’
8and a letter for Asaph the keeper of the king’s nature preserve, so that he will give me timber for beams for the gates of the fortress adjacent to the temple and for the city wall and for the house to which I go.” So the king granted me these requests, for the good hand of my God was on me.
5So come on, let’s go ahead and attack it by night and destroy all its fortified buildings.’
7Leave the work on this temple of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this temple of God in its proper place.
40Then the two choirs that gave thanks took their stations in the temple of God. I did also, along with half the officials with me,
24Then a wind came into me and stood me on my feet. The LORD spoke to me and said,“Go shut yourself in your house.
2Hanani, who was one of my relatives, along with some of the men from Judah, came to me, and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped and had survived the exile, and about Jerusalem.
3They said to me,“The remnant that remains from the exile there in the province are experiencing considerable adversity and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem lies breached, and its gates have been burned down!”
6including craftsmen, builders, and masons, and should buy wood and chiseled stone for the repair work.
3At that time Tattenai governor of Trans-Euphrates, Shethar-Bozenai, and their colleagues came to them and asked,“Who gave you authority to rebuild this temple and to complete this structure?”
16When all our enemies heard and all the nations who were around us saw this, they were greatly disheartened. They knew that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.
23Then, as soon as the copy of the letter from King Artaxerxes was read in the presence of Rehum, Shimshai the scribe, and their colleagues, they proceeded promptly to the Jews in Jerusalem and stopped them with threat of armed force.
22I was embarrassed to request soldiers and horsemen from the king to protect us from the enemy along the way, because we had said to the king,“The good hand of our God is on everyone who is seeking him, but his great anger is against everyone who forsakes him.”
9Although we are slaves, our God has not abandoned us in our servitude. He has extended kindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, in that he has revived us to restore the temple of our God and to raise up its ruins and to give us a protective wall in Judah and Jerusalem.
12But after our ancestors angered the God of heaven, he delivered them into the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and exiled the people to Babylon.
6Joiada son of Paseah and Meshullam son of Besodeiah worked on the Jeshanah Gate. They laid its beams and positioned its doors, its bolts, and its bars.
9How dare you claim the LORD’s authority to prophesy such things! How dare you claim his authority to prophesy that this temple will become like Shiloh and that this city will become an uninhabited ruin!” Then all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the LORD’s temple.