Read the Bible

¹ And it happened, when Sanballat heard that we built the wall, he was angry, and it was greatly enraging to him, and he mocked the Jews.² And he spoke before his brothers and the army of Samaria and said, What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they make an end in a day? Will they bring to life the stones out of the heaps of therubbish which are burned?³ And Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox goes up, he will even break down their stone wall.⁴ O our God, hear. For we are despised. And turn their curse on their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity.⁵ And do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before You. For they have provoked You to anger before the builders.⁶ So we built the wall, and all the wall was joined together to the half of it. For the people had a heart to work.

⁷ And it happened, when Sanballat and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that repairing of the walls of Jerusalem had gone up, that the breaks were being closed up, it was very angering to them.⁸ And all of them conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem, and do harm to it.⁹ But we made our prayer to our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.¹⁰ And Judah said, The strength of the burden carriers is weakening, and there is much rubbish, so that we are not able to build the wall.¹¹ And our foes have said, They shall not know or see until we come in the middle of them and kill them, and cause the work to cease.¹² And it happened when the Jews who lived near them came in, they said to us ten times, From all places where you shall return, they will be against us.¹³ So I stationed from the lowest parts of the place, from the back of the wall, in the higher places; even, I stationed the people according to their families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows.¹⁴ And I saw. And I rose up and said to the nobles and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and terrible, and fight for your brothers, your sons, and your daughters, yourwives, and your houses.¹⁵ And it happened, when our enemies heard that it was known to us, and that God had broken their counsel, all of us returned to the wall, each one to his work.

¹⁶ And it happened, from that time on, half of my servants worked in the work, and the other half of them were holding the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the scale-armor. And the rulers were behind all the house of Judah,¹⁷ the ones who built on the wall, and the ones who carried a burden; bearing with one of his hands, a worker in the work, and one, a holder of the weapon.¹⁸ For each man of the builders had his sword tied by his side, and built. And he who sounded the ram's horn was beside me.¹⁹ And I said to the nobles and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another.²⁰ In whatever place you hear the sound of the ram's horn, gather there to us. Our God will fight for us.²¹ So we worked in the work. And half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning until the stars came out.²² Likewise at the same time I said to the people, Let each man with his servant stay inside Jerusalem, so that in the night they may be a guard to us, and labor in the day.²³ So neither I, nor my brothers, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us put off our clothes, though each had his vessel of water.