2 Then he said before his brothers and the army of Samaria, “What are the feeble Jews doing? Will they restore these things for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the piles of rubble—even those burned up?”
3 Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him and said, “Their wall of stone that they are building would break down if a fox went on it!”
4 Hear, our God, for we are despised. Turn their scorn on their head and give them over to plunder in the land of captivity.
5 Do not cover their guilt, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before you. They have provoked the builders to anger.
6 So we rebuilt the wall, and all of the wall was joined up to half its height. For the people had a heart to do it.
7 Now when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem were going forward and the gaps were being closed, they were very angry.
8 So all of them plotted together to come fight against Jerusalem and to make trouble for it.