19 When Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official,k and Geshem the Arabl heard about this, they mocked and despised us, and said, “What is this you’re doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”

20 I gave them this reply, “The God of the heavens is the one who will grant us success. We, his servants, will start building, but you have no share, right, or historic claim in Jerusalem.”m