Nehemiah 6:6–13

⁶in which was written:

“It is reported among the nations—and Geshem^bv says it is true—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king ⁷and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: ‘There is a king in Judah!’ Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us meet together.”

⁸I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.”

⁹They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.”

But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.”

¹⁰One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple^w, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you.”

¹¹But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!” ¹²I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me^x because Tobiah and Sanballat^y had hired him. ¹³He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.^z