Nehemiah 2:9–20

⁹Then I went to the governors of the land west of the Euphrates. I gave them the king’s letters. He had also sent army officers and horsemen along with me.

¹⁰Sanballat and Tobiah heard about what was happening. They were very upset that someone had come to work for the good of Israel’s people. Sanballat was a Horonite. Tobiah was an official from Ammon.

Nehemiah Checks Out the Walls of Jerusalem

¹¹I went to Jerusalem. I stayed there for three days. ¹²Then at night I took a few men with me to check out the walls. I hadn’t told anyone what my God wanted me to do for Jerusalem. There weren’t any donkeys with me except the one I was riding on.

¹³That night I went out through the Valley Gate. I went toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate. I checked out the walls of Jerusalem. They had been broken down. I also checked the city gates. Fire had burned them up. ¹⁴I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool. But there wasn’t enough room for my donkey to get through. ¹⁵It was still night. I went up the Kidron Valley. I kept checking the wall. Finally, I turned back. I went back in through the Valley Gate.

¹⁶The officials didn’t know where I had gone. They didn’t know what I had done either. That’s because I hadn’t said anything to anyone yet. I hadn’t told the priests or nobles or officials. And I hadn’t spoken to any others who would be rebuilding the wall.

¹⁷I said to them, “You can see the trouble we’re in. Jerusalem has been destroyed. Fire has burned up its gates. Come on. Let’s rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. Then people won’t make fun of us anymore.” ¹⁸I also told them how the gracious hand of my God was helping me. And I told them what the king had said to me.

They replied, “Let’s start rebuilding.” So they began that good work.

¹⁹But Sanballat, the Horonite, heard about it. So did Tobiah, the official from Ammon. Geshem, the Arab, heard about it too. All of them laughed at us. They made fun of us. “What do you think you are doing?” they asked. “Are you turning against the king?”

²⁰I answered, “The God of heaven will give us success. We serve him. So we’ll start rebuilding the walls. But you don’t have any share in Jerusalem. You don’t have any claim to it. You don’t have any right to worship here.”