8
Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou dost feign them out of thine own heart.
9
For 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.
11
Then 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.
12
And I perceived that God had not sent him, but that he pronounced this prophecy against me, for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
13
For 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.
14
My 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.
16
And 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.
17
Likewise, in those days the principals of Judah sent many letters unto Tobiah, and
the letters of Tobiah came unto them.
18
For
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.