1. Then Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and our other enemies heard that I had built the wall. We repaired all the holes in the wall, but we had not yet put the doors in the gates.
2. So Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, Nehemiah, let’s meet together. We can meet in the town of Kephirim on the plain of Ono.” But they were planning to hurt me.
3. So I sent messengers to them with this answer: “I am doing important work, so I cannot come down. I don’t want the work to stop just so I can come down and meet with you.”
4. Sanballat and Geshem sent the same message to me four times, and I sent the same answer back to them each time.
5. Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his helper to me with the same message. And he had a letter in his hand that was not sealed.
6. This is what the letter said: “There is a rumor going around. People are talking about it everywhere. And, by the way, Geshem says it is true. People are saying that you and the Jews are planning to turn against the king. This is why you are building the wall of Jerusalem. People are also saying that you will be the new king of the Jews.
7. And the rumor is that you have chosen prophets to announce this about you in Jerusalem: ‘There is a king in Judah!’ “Now I warn you, Nehemiah, King Artaxerxes will hear about this. So come, let’s meet and talk about this together.”
8. So I sent this answer back to Sanballat: “Nothing you are saying is happening. You are just making all that up in your own head.”
9. Our enemies were only trying to make us afraid. They are thinking to themselves, “The Jews will be afraid and too weak to keep on working. Then the wall will not be finished.” But I prayed, “God, make me strong.”
10. One day I went to the house of a man named Shemaiah son of Delaiah. Delaiah was the son of Mehetabel. Shemaiah had to stay in his house. He said, “Nehemiah, let’s meet in God’s Temple. Let’s go inside the Holy Place and lock the doors. Men are coming to kill you. Tonight they are coming to kill you.”