8. So I sent him back this answer: “Nothing you are saying is really happening. You are just making it up in your own mind.”
9. Our enemies were trying to scare us. They were thinking, “They will get too weak to work. Then the wall will not be finished.”But I prayed, “God, make me strong.”
10. One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah. Delaiah was the son of Mehetabel. Shemaiah had to stay at home. He said, “Nehemiah, let’s meet in the Temple of God. Let’s go inside the Temple and close the doors. Men are coming at night to kill you.”
11. But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Should I run into the Temple to save my life? I will not go.”
12. I knew that God had not sent him. Tobiah and Sanballat had paid him to prophesy against me.
13. They paid him to frighten me so I would do this and sin. Then they could give me a bad name to shame me.