2
And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? shall they be permitted to go on? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, when they are burned?
3
And Tobijah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox went up, it would break down their stone wall. --
4
Hear, our God, for we are despised, and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in a land of captivity!
5
And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee; for they have provoked the builders.
6
But we built the wall; and all the wall was joined together to the half thereof; for the people had a mind to work.
7
And it came to pass, when Sanballat, and Tobijah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being repaired, that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth,
8
and conspired all of them together to come to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.
9
Then we prayed to our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.
10
And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens faileth, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build at the wall.
11
And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come into the midst of them and kill them, and put an end to the work.
12
And it came to pass that when the Jews that dwelt by them came and told us so ten times, from all the places whence they returned to us,