this effect. Come now, therefore, and let us take counsel
together.' Then I sent to him, saying, 'No such things have been done as
you say, but you have devised them in your own mind.' For they all would
have made us afraid, thinking, 'Their hands shall be weakened from the
work, that it may not be done.' But now, O God, strengthen thou my hands.

[Sidenote: Neh. 6:10-14]
And when I went to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, the son of
Mehetabel, who was shut up at home, he said, 'Let us meet together in the
house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple:
for they are coming to slay you in the night; yes, in the night they are
coming to slay you!' And I said, 'Should such a man as I flee? And how
could anyone like me [a layman] enter the chief room of the temple and
still live? I will not enter.' Then I perceived and it was clear that God
had not sent him; but he pronounced this prophecy against me, because
Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him, that I should be alarmed and act
accordingly and sin; and it would have given them occasion for an evil
report, that they might reproach me. Remember, O my God, Tobiah and
Sanballat according to these their acts, and also the prophetess Noadiah
and the rest of the prophets who would have made me afraid.

[Sidenote: Neh. 6:15, 16]
So the wall was finished in the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in
fifty-two days. And when all our enemies heard, all the surrounding
nations feared and fell in their own esteem, for they perceived that this
work had been done by our God.

[Sidenote: Neh. 6:17-19]
Moreover in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah,
and those of Tobiah came to them. For many in Judah had taken oath to him,
because he was the son-in-law of Shechaniah the son of Arah and his son
Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam, the son of Berechiah, as
wife. Also they praised his good deeds before me and reported my words to
him. Then Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.

[Sidenote: Neh. 7:1-3]
Now when the wall had been built and I had set up the doors, and the
porters and the singers and the Levites had been appointed, I placed my
brother Hanani and Hananiah the commander of the castle in charge of
Jerusalem; for he was a faithful man, and more God-fearing than many. And
I said to them, 'Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is
hot; and while watchmen are still on guard, let them shut the doors an