Nehemiah 4

1 But it came to pass, when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, it angered him, and he was greatly displeased, —and mocked the Jews;

When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the city wall, he was very angry. He was enraged/furious. He made fun of us Jews.

2 and spake before his brethren, and the army of Samaria, and said, What are, these feeble Jews, doing? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they bring to life the stones out of the heaps of dust, when, they, have been burned up?

While his colleagues and officials of the army troops who had come from Samaria were listening, he said, “What do these feeble/pathetic Jews [think they] are doing? Do they think that if they offer enough/many sacrifices, [their gods will hear them and enable] them to finish building the wall in one day? The stones [that were in the wall previously have been weakened by] being burned in a fire. Those stones that they are pulling out of the rubbish/garbage heaps—do they think that they can make them strong again?” [RHQ]

3 Now, Tobiah the Ammonite, was beside him, —so he said, Even that which they are building, if a fox should go up, he would break down their stone wall!

Tobiah was [standing] beside Sanballat. He said, “That stone wall [that they are building] is very weak; so if even a fox climbed up on it, the wall would fall down!”

4 Hear, O our God, for we have become a contempt, and turn thou back their reproach upon their own head, —and give them up as a prey, in the land of captivity;

Then I prayed. I said, “Our God, hear us, because they are ridiculing us! Cause the words of their insults to fall back on them! Allow their enemies to come and capture them and force them to go to a foreign land!

5 and do not cover their iniquity, and, their sin before thee, let it not be blotted out, —for they have caused vexation before them who are building.

They are guilty; they have [said things that] caused you to be angry while the people here who are building the wall are listening; so punish them!”

6 So we built the wall, and all the wall was finished unto the half thereof, —and the people had a mind to work.

But after some time, we finished building the wall around the whole city, up to half as high as the first wall had been. We were able to do that because we worked very hard.

7 But it came to pass, when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repair of the walls of Jerusalem had gone up, that the breaches began to be stopped, that it angered them exceedingly;

But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the men from Arabia, the people from the Ammon [people-group] and from Ashdod [city] heard that the work on the wall was continuing and that we were filling in the gaps in the wall, they became very angry.

8 and they conspired, all of them together, to come, to fight against Jerusalem, —and to cause it harm;

They all planned to come and fight against the people of Jerusalem [MTY] and to cause trouble.

9 howbeit we prayed unto our God, —and set a watch against them, day and night, because of them.

But we prayed to our God [to protect us], and we put men [around the walls] to guard [the city] day and night.

10 Then said Judah, The strength of the burden-bearer faileth, and, the rubbish, aboundeth, —and, we, are not able to build at the wall;

Then the people of [MTY] Judah started to say, “The men who are working [on the wall] are becoming very tired. There is a lot of [heavy] rubble that we must remove; we ourselves cannot finish the work.

11 and our adversaries have said, They shall not know, neither shall they see, until we come into their midst, and slay them, —so shall we cause the work to cease.

“Besides, our enemies are saying, ‘Before the Jews see us, we will swoop down on them and kill them and stop their work [on the wall]!’”

12 But it came to pass, when the Jews dwelling near them came in, then said they unto us, ten times, From all places whither ye shall turn, [they will be] upon us!

The Jews who were living near our enemies came and told us many times, “You should leave the city and go to other places, in order that your enemies will not attack you!”

13 So I set—on the lower slopes of the place behind the wall in the waste grounds, —yea I set the people, by their families, with their swords, their spears and their bows.

So I put guards at the places where the wall was not very high yet and at places where there were gaps in the wall. I put guards to protect each of their family groups. I gave the guards daggers, spears, and bows [and arrows].

14 Then I looked and rose up, and said—unto the nobles and unto the deputies and unto the rest of the people, Do not ye fear because of them, —the great and fearful Lord, remember ye, so shall ye fight for your brethren, your sons and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.

Then after I inspected everything, I summoned the leaders and [other] officials and [many of] the other people, and I said to them, “Do not be afraid of our enemies! Think about [what] Yahweh, who is great and glorious, [can do]! And fight to protect your friends, your families, and your homes!”

15 And it came to pass, when our enemies heard that it was known to us, and that God had overturned their counsel, then returned we, all of us, unto the wall, every man unto his work.

Our enemies heard that we knew what they were planning to do and that God had (spoiled their plans/prevented them from doing what they planned). [But we were sure that God would defend us, ] so we all started to work on the wall again.

16 And it came to pass, from that day, the half of my young men, were working in the work, and, the half of them, were grasping the spears, the bucklers, and the bows, and the coats of mail, —but, the rulers, were behind all the house of Judah.

But after that, only half of the men who were working for me worked on the wall. The others stood there on guard, holding their spears, shields, bows [and arrows], and [wearing their] coats made of metal plates. [To encourage the people] were building the wall, their leaders stood behind them.

17 They who were building at the wall and they who were carrying burdens, they who were lifting, [each man], with his one hand, was working at the work, and, with the other, was grasping the weapon.

Those who carried [baskets of supplies on their heads/shoulders] and those who built the wall did their work with one hand, and held a weapon with the other hand.

18 Even they who were building, every man, had his sword girded upon his loins, and so was building, —and, he that sounded the horn, was by my side.

All those who were building [the wall] had a dagger fastened to their side. The man who would blow the trumpet [if our enemies attacked] was standing at my side.

19 So I said unto the nobles and unto the deputies, and unto the rest of the people, The work, is great and large, —and, we, are separated upon the wall, far away, each man from his brother:

Then I said to the officials, the other important men, and the other people, “This wall is very long, and we are far apart from each other along the wall.

20 In what place soever ye shall hear the sound of the horn, thither, gather yourselves unto us, —our God, will fight for us.

If you hear the man blowing the trumpet, gather around us at that place. [Remember that] our God will fight for us!”

21 So, we, were working at the work, —one half of them, grasping the spears, from the uprisings of the dawn, until the coming out of the stars.

So we continued to work. Half of the men continued to hold their spears all day, from when the sun rose [in the morning] until the stars appeared [at night].

22 Moreover, at that time, I said to the people, Let, every one with his young man, lodge for the night in the midst of Jerusalem, —so shall they serve us, in the night, as a watch, and, the day, for work.

At that time, I also said to the people, “Tell every worker and his helper that they must stay inside Jerusalem at night. By doing that, they can guard us at night, and they can work [on the wall] during the daytime.”

23 So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my young men, nor the men of the watch that followed me, none of us, put off our clothes, —every one [went] with his weapon to the water.

During that time, none of us ever took off our clothes (OR, we wore our clothes all the time)—I and my relatives and my workers and the guards who were with me. And we had our weapons with us, in our hands.