Nehemiah 6:4-9, 15-16

Sanballat and Geshem sent the same message to me four times, and each time I sent back the same answer. The fifth time Sanballat sent his helper to me with the message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter. This is what was written: A report is going around to all the nations, and Geshem says it is true, that you and the Jewish people are planning to turn against the king and that you are rebuilding the wall. They say you are going to be their king and that you have appointed prophets to announce in Jerusalem: “There is a king of Judah!” The king will hear about this. So come, let’s discuss this together. So I sent him back this answer: “Nothing you are saying is really happening. You are just making it up in your own mind.” Our enemies were trying to scare us, thinking, “They will get too weak to work. Then the wall will not be finished.” But I prayed, “God, make me strong.”

The wall of Jerusalem was completed on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Elul. It took fifty-two days to rebuild. When all our enemies heard about it and all the nations around us saw it, they were shamed. They then understood that the work had been done with the help of our God.