“A report is going around among the nations. Geshem says it’s true. We hear that you and the other Jews are planning to turn against the Persian rulers. And that’s why you are building the wall.

“It’s also reported that you are about to become their king. ⁷People say that you have even appointed prophets to make an announcement about you. In Jerusalem they are going to say, ‘Judah has a king!’ That report will get back to the king of Persia. So come. Let’s talk things over.”

⁸I sent a reply to Sanballat. I said, “What you are saying isn’t really happening. You are just making it up.”

⁹All of them were trying to frighten us. They thought, “Their hands will get too weak to do the work. So it won’t be completed.”

But I prayed to God. I said, “Make my hands stronger.”

¹⁰One day I went to Shemaiah’s house. He was the son of Delaiah. Delaiah was the son of Mehetabel. Shemaiah had shut himself up in his home. He said, “Let’s go to God’s house. Let’s meet inside the temple. Let’s close the temple doors. Some people want to kill you. They will come at night.”

¹¹But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Should someone like me go into the temple just to save his life? No! I won’t go!”

¹²I realized that God hadn’t sent Shemaiah. Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. That’s why he had prophesied lies about me. ¹³They had hired him to scare me. They wanted me to commit a sin by doing what he said. That would give me a bad name in the community. People would find fault with me and my work.

Read in Logos