Nehemiah 6:1-8

Christian Standard Bible Anglicised

Attempts to Discourage the Builders

6 When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies^(A) heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that no gap was left in it^(B) – though at that time I had not installed the doors in the city gates^(C) –  ² Sanballat and Geshem^(D) sent me a message: ‘Come, let’s meet together in the villages of^[a] the Ono Valley.’^(E) They were planning to harm me.

³ So I sent messengers to them, saying, ‘I am doing important work and cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you? ’ ⁴ Four times they sent me the same proposal, and I gave them the same reply.

⁵ Sanballat^(F) sent me this same message a fifth time by his assistant, who had an open letter in his hand. ⁶ In it was written:

It is reported among the nations – and Geshem^[b](G) agrees – that you and the Jews plan to rebel. This is the reason you are building the wall. According to these reports, you are to become their king ⁷ and have even set up the prophets in Jerusalem to proclaim on your behalf, ‘There is a king in Judah.’^(H) These rumours will be heard by the king. So come, let’s confer together.

⁸ Then I replied to him, ‘There is nothing to these rumours you are spreading; you are inventing them in your own mind.’^(I)