Nehemiah 4:1-12

1Sanballat heard that we were building the wall. He was very angry and upset. He laughed at the Jews.

2His officers and Samaria's army were with him. He said to them, ‘Those Jews have great ideas, but they are weak. How will they ever repair the wall? Will they give sacrifices to their God? Will that help them to repair the wall in one day? They will never build anything from this heap of stones that fire has destroyed!’

3Tobiah the Ammonite was with him. Tobiah said, ‘The wall that the Jews are trying to build is very weak. Even if a little fox climbs up on it, the stones would all fall down again!’

4So I prayed, ‘Hear us, our God. Our enemies think that we are fools. Make them seem like fools themselves! Let their enemies take them away as slaves.

5Do not forgive their sins. Do not say that they are not guilty. They have insulted us when we are trying to build.’

6The people worked hard because they wanted to build the wall. As a result, the wall all round the city soon became half as high as the old wall.

7Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arab people, the Ammonites and the people who came from Ashdod all heard that the work was continuing. They could see that we were repairing the holes in the wall. So they were very angry.

8They met together to decide what they should do. They decided to attack Jerusalem so that there would be trouble.

9So we continued to pray to our God. We also put guards on the walls in the day and the night, to keep the city safe.

10Then the people in Judah complained, ‘Our workers are becoming weak. There are so many stones and rubbish! We cannot finish the work on the wall!’

11At the same time, our enemies were boasting, ‘Before the Jews even see us, we will attack them. We will kill them before they know what is happening. That will be the end of their work on the wall!’

12The Jews who lived near our enemies warned us many times. They told us that our enemies would attack us wherever we went.