1. And it came to be, when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, that he was wroth and highly offended, and mocked the Yehuḏim.
2. And he spoke before his brothers and the army of Shomeron, and said, “What are these feeble Yehuḏim doing? Are they going to restore, slaughter, complete it in a day? Are they going to bring to life the stones from the heaps of rubbish which are burned?”
3. And Toḇiyah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Whatever they build, if a fox should climb on it, he shall break down their stone wall.”
4. “Hear, O our Elohim, for we have become despised. And turn back their reproach on their own heads, and give them as a prey in a land of captivity!
5. “And do not cover over their crookedness, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before You, for they have provoked You before the builders.”
6. So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to the half of it, for the people had a heart to work.
7. And it came to be, when Sanballat and Toḇiyah, and the Araḇs, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdoḏites heard that the walls of Yerushalayim were being repaired and the broken places began to be filled, that they became very wroth,
8. and all of them conspired together to come to fight against Yerushalayim and to do harm to it.
9. But we prayed to our Elohim, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.
10. And Yehuḏah said, “The strength of the burden bearers is weakening, and there is so much rubbish that we are unable to build the wall.”
11. And our adversaries said, “Let them not know or see it until we come into their midst and shall slay them, and cause the work to cease.”
12. And it came to be, when the Yehuḏim who dwelt near them came, that they said to us ten times, “From whatever place you turn, they are against us.”
13. So I set men behind the lower parts of the wall, at the openings – I set the people according to their clans, with their swords, their spears, and their bows.
14. And I looked, and rose up and said to the nobles, and to the deputy rulers, and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the great and awesome, יהוה, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your houses.”