1And it came about just as it was heard by Sanballat and Tobiah and by Geshem the Arabian and by the rest of our enemies that I had built the wall and that no breach remained in it, and that up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates.2And Sanballat and Geshem sent word to me, saying, "Come, and let us meet together in the Hakkephirim in the Valley of Ono;" but they were plotting to do me harm.3So I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and I am not able to come down. Why should the work stop when I leave it and come down to you?"4They sent to me in this manner four times, and I answered them in the same way.5Then Sanballat sent to me in the same way a fifth time, by his servant, with an open letter in his hand.6It was written in it, Among the nations it is reported, and Geshem says, that you and the Jews are planning to rebel; therefore you are rebuilding the wall, and you are to be their king, according to these reports.7You have also appointed prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah; and now it will be reported to the king according to these reports. So come, let us consult together.8I sent to him, saying, Nothing like these reports that you mention has happened, for you are inventing them from your own heart.9For they were all trying to frighten us, thinking, Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done. But now, strengthen my hands.10When I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah son of Mehetabel, he was confined, and he said, Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, because they are coming to kill you; they are coming to kill you by night.11But I said, Should a man like me flee? And who like me would go into the temple and live? I will not go in.12Then I realized that God had not sent him, because he had pronounced this prophecy against me, for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.13He was hired so that I would be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they would have a bad name with which to reproach me.14Remember, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat according to these deeds of theirs, and also Noadiah the prophetess and the rest of the prophets who were trying to frighten me.