1
And it cometh to pass, when Sanballat hath heard that we are building the wall, that it is displeasing to him, and he is very angry and mocketh at the Jews,
2
and saith before his brethren and the force of Samaria, yea, he saith, `What [are] the weak Jews doing? are they left to themselves? do they sacrifice? do they complete in a day? do they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish? -- and they burnt!'
3
And Tobiah the Ammonite [is] by him and saith, `Also, that which they are building -- if a fox doth go up, then it hath broken down their stone wall.'
4
Hear, O our God, for we have been despised; and turn back their reproach on their own head, and give them for a spoil in a land of captivity;
5
and do not cover over their iniquity, and their sin from before Thee let not be blotted out, for they have provoked to anger -- over-against those building.
6
And we build the wall, and all the wall is joined -- unto its half, and the people have a heart to work.
7
And it cometh to pass, when Sanballat hath heard, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, that lengthening hath gone up to the walls of Jerusalem, that the breeches have begun to be stopped, then it is very displeasing to them,
8
and they conspire, all of them together, to come in to fight against Jerusalem, and to do to it injury.
9
And we pray unto our God, and appoint a watch against them, by day and by night, because of them.
10
And Judah saith, `The power of the burden-bearers hath become feeble, and the rubbish [is] abundant, and we are not able to build on the wall.'