Neemias 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!"

4 Then I prayed. I said, "Our God, hear us, because they are ridiculing us! Cause the words of their insults to fall back on them! Allow their enemies to come and capture them and force them to go to a foreign land! 5 They are guilty; they have said things that caused you to be angry while the people here who are building the wall are listening; so punish them!"

6 But after some time, we finished building the wall around the whole city, up to half as high as the first wall had been. We were able to do that because we worked very hard.