^6–7“The word is out among the nations—and Geshem says it’s true—that you and the Jews are planning to rebel. That’s why you are rebuilding the wall. The word is that you want to be king and that you have appointed prophets to announce in Jerusalem, ‘There’s a king in Judah!’ The king is going to be told all this—don’t you think we should sit down and have a talk?”

⁸I sent him back this: “There’s nothing to what you’re saying. You’ve made it all up.”

⁹They were trying to intimidate us into quitting. They thought, “They’ll give up; they’ll never finish it.”

I prayed, “Give me strength.”

¹⁰Then I met secretly with Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, at his house. He said:

Let’s meet at the house of God,

inside The Temple;

Let’s find safety behind locked doors

because they’re coming to kill you,

Yes, coming by night to kill you.

¹¹I said, “Why would a man like me run for cover? And why would a man like me use The Temple as a hideout? I won’t do it.”

^12–13I sensed that God hadn’t sent this man. The so-called prophecy he spoke to me was the work of Tobiah and Sanballat; they had hired him. He had been hired to scare me off—trick me—a layman, into desecrating The Temple and ruining my good reputation so they could accuse me.

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