49 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
49 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
Attempts to Discourage the Builders
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# Chapter 6
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1. When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that no gap was left in it--though at that time I had not installed the doors in the city gates--
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2. Sanballat and Geshem sent me a message: "Come, let's meet together in the villages of the Ono Valley." They were planning to harm me.
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3. So I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing important work and cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?"
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4. Four times they sent me the same proposal, and I gave them the same reply.
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5. Sanballat sent me this same message a fifth time by his aide, who had an open letter in his hand.
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6. In it was written:
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It is reported among the nations--and Geshem agrees--that you and the Jews plan to rebel. This is the reason you are building the wall. According to these reports, you are to become their king
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7. and have even set up the prophets in Jerusalem to proclaim on your behalf, "There is a king in Judah." These rumors will be heard by the king. So come, let's confer together.
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8. Then I replied to him, "There is nothing to these rumors you are spreading; you are inventing them in your own mind."
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9. For they were all trying to intimidate us, saying, "They will drop their hands from the work, and it will never be finished."
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But now, my God, strengthen my hands.
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Attempts to Intimidate Nehemiah
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10. I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was restricted to his house. He said:
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Let's meet at the house of God,
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inside the temple.
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Let's shut the temple doors
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because they're coming to kill you.
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They're coming to kill you tonight!
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11. But I said, "Should a man like me run away? How can someone like me enter the temple and live? I will not go."
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12. I realized that God had not sent him, because of the prophecy he spoke against me. Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
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13. He was hired, so that I would be intimidated, do as he suggested, sin, and get a bad reputation, in order that they could discredit me.
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14. My God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat for what they have done, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the other prophets who wanted to intimidate me.
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The Wall Completed
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15. The wall was completed in fifty-two days, on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul.
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16. When all our enemies heard this, all the surrounding nations were intimidated and lost their confidence, for they realized that this task had been accomplished by our God.
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17. During those days, the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah's letters came to them.
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18. For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, since he was a son-in-law of Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah.
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19. These nobles kept mentioning Tobiah's good deeds to me, and they reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.
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