Nehemiah Views the Wall of Jerusalem

11 So I mcame to Jerusalem and was there three days. 12 Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem; nor was there any animal with me, except the one on which I rode. 13 And I went out by night nthrough the Valley Gate to the Serpent Well and the 7Refuse Gate, and 8viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were obroken down and its gates which were burned with fire. 14 Then I went on to the pFountain Gate and to the qKing’s Pool, but there was no room for the animal under me to pass. 15 So I went up in the night by the rvalley, 9and 1viewed the wall; then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. 16 And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done; I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the others who did the work.

17 Then I said to them, “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies 2waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be sa reproach.” 18 And I told them of tthe hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me.

So they said, “Let us rise up and build.” Then they uset 3their hands to this good work.

19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us, and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? vWill you rebel against the king?”

20 So I answered them, and said to them, “The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build, wbut you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem.”