Nehemiah 6:1-9 — Legacy Standard Bible

Enemies Try to Make Nehemiah Fearful

6Now it happened when it was heard by Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall, and that no breach remained in it, ^aalthough at that time I had not made the doors to stand in the gates, ²that Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together at ¹Chephirim in the plain of ^aOno.” But they were planning to ²do me harm. ³So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” ⁴And they sent messages to me four times in this manner, and I responded to them in the same manner. ⁵Then Sanballat sent his young man to me in the same manner a fifth time with an open letter in his hand. ⁶In it was written, “It is heard among the nations, and ¹Gashmu says, that ^ayou and the Jews are planning to rebel; therefore you are rebuilding the wall. And you are to be their king, according to these words. ⁷“You have also ¹set up prophets to call out in Jerusalem concerning ²you, ‘A king is in Judah!’ So now it will be heard by the king according to these words. So now, come, let us take counsel together.”

⁸Then I sent a message to him, saying, “Such words as you are saying have not been done, but you are ^adevising them in your own heart.”

⁹For all of them were trying to frighten us, ¹thinking, “Their hands will ²become limp in doing the work, and it will not be done.” But now, ^aO God, strengthen my hands.