1 Then Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and our other enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall. There was not one gap in it. But I had not yet set the doors in the gates.
2 So Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, Nehemiah, let’s meet together in Kephirim on the plain of Ono.”But they were planning to harm me.
3 So I sent messengers to them with this answer: “I am doing a great work. I can’t come down. I don’t want the work to stop while I leave to meet you.”
4 Sanballat and Geshem sent the same message to me four times. And I sent back the same answer each time.
5 The fifth time Sanballat sent his helper to me with the message. And in his hand was an unsealed letter.