Nehemiah 6 | New International Reader’s Version

New International Reader’s Version

Nehemiah’s enemies continue to oppose the rebuilding

1 Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem, the Arab, heard about what I had done. So did the rest of our enemies. All of them heard I had rebuilt the wall. In fact, they heard there weren’t any gaps left in it. But up to that time I hadn’t put up the gates at the main entrances to the city. 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent me a message. They said, ‘Come. Let’s talk with one another. Let’s meet in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.’ But they were planning to harm me. 3 So I sent messengers to them with my answer. I replied, ‘I’m working on a huge project. So I can’t get away. Why should the work stop while I leave it? Why should I go down and talk with you?’ 4 They sent me the same message four times. And I gave them the same answer each time. 5 Sanballat sent his helper to me a fifth time. He brought the same message. He was carrying a letter that wasn’t sealed. 6 It said, ‘A report is going around among the nations. Geshem says it’s true. We hear that you and the other Jews are planning to turn against the Persian rulers. And that’s why you are building the wall. It’s also reported that you are about to become their king. 7 People say that you have even appointed prophets to make an announcement about you. In Jerusalem they are going to say, “Judah has a king!” That report will get back to the king of Persia. So come. Let’s meet together.’ 8 I sent a reply to Sanballat. I said, ‘What you are saying isn’t really happening. You are just making it up.’ 9 All of them were trying to frighten us. They thought, ‘Their hands will get too weak to do the work. So it won’t be completed.’ But I prayed to God. I said, ‘Make my hands stronger.’ 10 One day I went to Shemaiah’s house. He was the son of Delaiah. Delaiah was the son of Mehetabel. Shemaiah had shut himself up in his home. He said, ‘Let’s go to God’s house. Let’s meet inside the temple and close the doors. Some men are coming at night to kill you.’ 11 But I said, ‘Should a man like me run away? Should someone like me go into the temple just to save his life? No! I won’t go!’ 12 I realised that God hadn’t sent Shemaiah. Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. That’s why he had prophesied lies about me. 13 They had hired him to scare me. They wanted me to commit a sin by doing what he said. That would give me a bad name in the community. People would find fault with me and my work. 14 You are my God. Remember what Tobiah and Sanballat have done. Also remember the prophet Noadiah. She and the rest of the prophets have been trying to scare me. 15 So the city wall was completed on the 25th day of the month of Elul. It was finished in 52 days.

Nehemiah’s enemies oppose the completed wall

16 All our enemies heard about it. All the nations around us became afraid. They weren’t sure of themselves anymore. They realised that our God had helped us finish the work. 17 In those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah. And replies from Tobiah came back to them. 18 Many people in Judah had promised that they would be faithful to him. That’s because he was Shekaniah’s son-in-law. Shekaniah was the son of Arah. Tobiah’s son Jehohanan had married Meshullam’s daughter. Meshullam was the son of Berekiah. 19 Tobiah’s friends kept reporting to me the good things he did. They also kept telling him what I said. And Tobiah himself sent letters to scare me.

English Standard Version

Conspiracy Against Nehemiah

1 Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), (Ne 2:10; Ne 2:19; Ne 3:1; Ne 3:3; Ne 4:1; Ne 4:7; Ne 6:6)

Ne 2:10Ne 2:19Ne 3:1Ne 3:3Ne 4:1Ne 4:7Ne 6:6

2 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to do me harm. (1Ch 8:12) 3 And I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” 4 And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner. 5 In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. 6 In it was written, “It is reported among the nations, and Geshem^[1] also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king. (Ne 2:19) 7 And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, ‘There is a king in Judah.’ And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together.” 8 Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.” 9 For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.” But now, O God,^[2] strengthen my hands. 10 Now when I went into the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his home, he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night.” (Jer 36:5) 11 But I said, “Should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live?^[3] I will not go in.” 12 And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. (Eze 13:17; Eze 13:22) 13 For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me. 14 Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid. (Ne 13:29; Eze 13:17)

The Wall Is Finished

15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. (Ne 2:10; Ne 4:1; Ne 4:7; Ps 126:2)

Ne 2:10Ne 4:1Ne 4:7Ps 126:2

17 Moreover, in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters came to them. 18 For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah: and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as his wife. (Ezr 2:5; Ezr 8:16) 19 Also they spoke of his good deeds in my presence and reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.