Nehemiah 4

Enemies opposed rebuilding the wall

1 When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the city wall, he was very angry. He was enraged/furious. He made fun of us Jews. 2 While his colleagues and officials of the army troops who had come from Samaria were listening, he said, "What do these feeble/pathetic Jews think they are doing? Do they think that if they offer enough/many sacrifices, their gods will hear them and enable them to finish building the wall in one day? The stones that were in the wall previously have been weakened by being burned in a fire. Those stones that they are pulling out of the rubbish/garbage heaps—do they think that they can make them strong again?" [RHQ]

3 Tobiah was standing beside Sanballat. He said, "That stone wall that they are building is very weak; so if even a fox climbed up on it, the wall would fall down!"