Nehemiah 4:7-11

4:7 (4:1) ¹  When Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the people of Ashdod heard that the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem ²  had moved ahead and that the breaches had begun to be closed, they were very angry. 4:8 All of them conspired together to move with armed forces ³  against Jerusalem and to create a disturbance in it. 4:9 So we prayed to our God and stationed a guard to protect against them ⁴  both day and night. 4:10 Then those in Judah said, “The strength of the laborers ⁵  has failed! The debris is so great that we are unable to rebuild the wall.”

4:11 Our adversaries also boasted, ⁶  “Before they are aware or anticipate ⁷  anything, we will come in among them and kill them, and we will bring this work to a halt!”

[4:7]  ¹ sn Chapter 4 begins here in the Hebrew text (BHS). See the note at 4:1.

[4:7]  ² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[4:8]  ³ tn Heb “to fight.”

[4:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “against them.” The words “to protect” are added in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness. Some emend MT עֲלֵיהֶם (’alehem, “against them”) to עָלֶיהָ (’aleha, “against it,” i.e., Jerusalem).

[4:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “burden-bearers.”

[4:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “said.”

[4:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “see.”