2 And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria and said, What are these feeble Jews doing? Is this to be permitted them? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish on time? Will they resurrect the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which were burned?
3 Now Tobiah, the Ammonite, was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox were to go up it, he would break down their stone wall.
4 Hear, O our God; for we are despised; and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of their captivity.
5 And do not cover their iniquity, nor let their sin be blotted out from before thee, for they have become angry against the builders.
6 But we built the wall, and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof, for the people were motivated to work.
7 And it came to pass when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were sound and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth
8 and conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it.