1Now it happened that when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he burned with anger and was greatly vexed, and he mocked the Jews.
2And he spoke before his kinsmen and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore things for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubble, and they burned?”
3And Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Even what they are building — if a fox goes up on it, it would break down their wall of stones!”
4Hear, our God, for we have become an object of contempt; turn back their reproach on their own head, and give them over as plunder in a land of captivity.
5Do not cover over their iniquity, and let their sin not be wiped out from before you, for they have provoked you to anger before the builders.
6So we built the wall, and all the wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a heart to work.
7Now it happened that when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repair of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward, and that the breaches were beginning to be closed up, they became very angry.
8And they all conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to do it harm.
9But we prayed to our God and set up a guard against them day and night because of them.
10Then Judah said, “The strength of the burden-bearer is failing, and there is much rubble; and we ourselves are not able to build the wall.”
11And our adversaries said, “They will not know and will not see until we come into their midst and kill them and put a stop to the work.”
12Now it happened that when the Jews who were living near them came, they said to us ten times, “From all the places wherever you turn, they will come against us.”
13So I stationed men in the lowest parts of the place behind the wall, in the exposed places; and I stationed the people by families with their swords, their spears, and their bows.
14And I looked, and I rose and said to the nobles, and to the officials, and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, the great and awesome one, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.”
15And it happened that when our enemies heard that it had become known to us, and that God had frustrated their plan, then we all returned to the wall, each to his work.
16And it happened from that day on that half of my young men were doing the work, while half of them were holding the spears, the shields, the bows, and the coats of mail; and the officers stood behind all the house of Judah.
17Those building on the wall, and those bearing burdens, were loading up: with one of his hands each did the work, and with the other he held a weapon.
18And the builders — each had his sword bound at his waist as he built; and the one sounding the trumpet was beside me.
19And I said to the nobles, and to the officials, and to the rest of the people, “The work is great and extensive, and we are separated along the wall, far from one another.
20In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, there rally to us; our God will fight for us.”
21So we were doing the work, and half of them were holding the spears from the rising of the dawn until the coming out of the stars.
22Also at that time I said to the people, “Let each man with his young man spend the night within Jerusalem, so that they may serve us as a guard by night and be at work by day.”
23And neither I, nor my brothers, nor my young men, nor the men of the guard who followed me — none of us took off our clothes; each kept his weapon in his right hand.
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