Nehemiah 6
6
Plots against Nehemiah
1Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem, and our other enemies learned that I had completely rebuilt the wall. All I lacked was hanging the doors in the gates. 2Then Sanballat and Geshem sent a message, asking me to meet with them in one of the villages in Ono Valley. I knew they were planning to harm me in some way. 3So I sent messengers to tell them, “My work is too important to stop now and go there. I can't afford to slow down the work just to visit with you.” 4They invited me four times, but each time I refused to go.
5Finally, Sanballat sent an official to me with an unsealed letter, 6which said:
A rumor is going around among the nations that you and the other Jews are rebuilding the wall and planning to rebel, because you want to be their king. And Geshem#6.6 Geshem: Hebrew “Gashmu” (see verse 1 and 2.19). says it's true! 7You even have prophets in Jerusalem, claiming you are now the king of Judah. You know the Persian king will hear about this, so let's get together and talk it over.
8I sent a message back to Sanballat, saying, “None of this is true! You are making it all up.”
9Our enemies were trying to frighten us and to keep us from our work. But I asked God to give me strength.
10One day I went to visit Shemaiah.#6.10 Shemaiah: Hebrew “Shemaiah son of Delaiah son of Mehetabel.” He wasn't supposed to leave his house, but he said, “Let's hurry to the holy place of the temple and hide there.#6.10 holy place … hide there: Only priests were allowed to enter the holy place; anyone else could be put to death. We will lock the temple doors, because your enemies are planning to kill you tonight.”
11I answered, “Why should someone like me have to run and hide in the temple to save my life? I won't go!”
12Suddenly I realized that God had not given Shemaiah this message. But Tobiah and Sanballat had paid him to trick me 13and to frighten me into doing something wrong, because they wanted to ruin my good name.
14Then I asked God to punish Tobiah and Sanballat for what they had done. I prayed that God would punish the prophet Noadiah and the other prophets who, together with her, had tried to frighten me.
The Work Is Finished
15On the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul,#6.15 Elul: The sixth month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-August to mid-September. the wall was completely rebuilt. It had taken 52 days. 16When our enemies in the surrounding nations learned that the work was finished, they felt helpless, because they knew that our God had helped us rebuild the wall.
17All this time the Jewish leaders and Tobiah had been writing letters back and forth. 18Many people in Judah were loyal to Tobiah for two reasons: Shecaniah son of Arah was his father-in-law, and Tobiah's son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah.#6.18 Shecaniah … Berechiah: Jews who had helped rebuild the Jerusalem wall (see 3.4,29, 30). 19The people would always tell me about the good things Tobiah had done, and then they would tell Tobiah everything I had said. So Tobiah kept sending letters, trying to frighten me.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Nehemiah 6
6
Nehemiah 6
1¶ Now it came to pass when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem, the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates),
2that Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they had thought to do me evil.
3And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down; why should the work cease, whilst I leave it and come down to you?
4Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort, and I answered them after the same manner.
5Then Sanballat sent his slave to say the same thing for the fifth time with an open letter in his hand,
6in which was written, It is reported among the Gentiles, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel, for which cause thou dost build the wall, that thou may be their king, according to these words.
7And thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah! And now these words shall be heard by the king. Come now, therefore, and let us take counsel together.
8Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou dost feign them out of thine own heart.
9For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it not be done. Now, therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.
10¶ Afterward I came in secret unto the house of Shemaiah, the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut up; and he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple; for they are coming to slay thee; yea, tonight they will come to slay thee.
11Then I said, Should such a man as I flee? And who is there as I who could go into the temple and live? I will not go in.
12And I perceived that God had not sent him, but that he pronounced this prophecy against me, for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
13For he was bribed to make me be thus afraid and sin and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me.
14My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works and on the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets, that did things to put me in fear.
15¶ So the wall was finished the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.
16And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard of it, all the Gentiles that were about us feared, and they were much cast down in their own eyes, and they knew that this work was wrought of our God.
17Likewise, in those days the principals of Judah sent many letters unto Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came unto them.
18For there were many in Judah sworn unto him, because he was the son-in-law of Shechaniah, the son of Arah; and his son Johanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam, the son of Berechiah.
19They also reported his good deeds before me and uttered my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear.
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The Jubilee Bible 2000 (JUB) by Ransom Press International