1When Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry. He was filled with rage, and he mocked the Jews.
2He spoke in front of his brothers and the army of Samaria, and said, "What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they make themselves strong? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Will they bring the stones back to life out of the heaps of rubbish, when they are burned?"
3Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, "Even what they are building - if a fox climbs up on it, he will break down their stone wall."
4"Hear, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them up as plunder in a land where they are captives."
5"Do not cover over their guilt. Do not let their sin be wiped away from before you, for they have stirred you to anger in front of the builders."
6So we built the wall. All the wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.
7But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabians, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod heard that the walls of Jerusalem were going up, and that the gaps were beginning to be closed, they were very angry.
8They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder the work.
9But we prayed to our God, and because of them we set a watch against them day and night.
10And Judah said, "The strength of those who carry the loads is failing, and there is much rubbish. We are not able to build the wall."
11And our enemies said, "They will not know or see anything until we come right in among them. Then we will kill them and stop the work."
12When the Jews who lived near them came, they said to us ten times, "From all the places where you turn back to us, they will be upon you."
13So I placed people in the low places behind the wall, and on the high places. I set the people out by their families, with their swords, their spears and their bows.
14I looked, and I stood up and said to the nobles, the rulers and the rest of the people, "Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and terrible, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."
15When our enemies heard that we knew about their plan, and that God had brought their plot to nothing, we all went back to the wall, each one to his own work.
16From that time on, half of my servants worked at the building, and the other half held the spears, the shields, the bows and the coats of armour. The rulers stood behind all the house of Judah.
17Those who built on the wall, and those who carried the loads and those who loaded them, each worked with one hand and held a weapon in the other.
18Every builder had his sword strapped at his side while he built. And the man who sounded the trumpet stayed beside me.
19I said to the nobles, the rulers and the rest of the people, "The work is great and spread out, and we are separated along the wall, far from one another."
20"So wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, come to us there. Our God will fight for us."
21So we laboured at the work. Half of them held the spears from the first light of morning until the stars came out.
22At the same time I also said to the people, "Let every man and his servant stay the night inside Jerusalem, so that at night they may be a guard for us, and work in the day."
23So neither I, nor my brothers, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me took off our clothes. Each one took his weapon even to the water.