3
Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they are building, if a fox go up, he shall break down their stone wall.
4
Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn back their reproach upon their own head, and give them up for a spoil 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 [thee] to anger before the builders.
6
So we built the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto half [the height] thereof: for the people had a mind to work.
7
But it came to pass that, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem went forward, [and] that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth;
8
and they conspired all of them together to come and fight against Jerusalem, and to cause confusion therein.
9
But we made our prayer unto 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 is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.
11
And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come into the midst of them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease.
12
And it came to pass that, when the Jews that dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times from all places, Ye must return unto us.
13
Therefore set I in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in the open places, I set [there] the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows.