Messages Between the Opponents of the Jews and Nehemiah

¹When word reached Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a breach remained in it—though at that time I had not yet set up doors in the gateways— ²Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me, saying, “Come, let us get together in Kephirim in the Ono valley”; they planned to do me harm. ³I sent them messengers, saying, “I am engaged in a great work and cannot come down, for the work will stop if I leave it in order to come down to you.” ⁴They sent me the same message four times, and I gave them the same answer. ⁵Sanballat sent me the same message a fifth time by his servant, who had an open letter with him. ⁶Its text was: “Word has reached the nations, and Geshem too says that you and the Jews are planning to rebel—for which reason you are building the wall—and that you are to be their king. Such is the word. ⁷You have also set up prophets in Jerusalem to proclaim about you, ‘There is a king in Judah!’ Word of these things will surely reach the king; so come, let us confer together.”

⁸I sent back a message to him, saying, “None of these things you mention has occurred; they are figments of your imagination.”