<t /><p class="bodytext">Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.<n id="1" />

<p class="bodytext">Also in those days I saw the men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.

Hanani, who was one of my relatives,<n id="1" /> along with some of the men from Judah, came to me,<n id="2" /> and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped and had survived the exile, and about Jerusalem.<n id="3" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext"><v id="(3:33)" /><n id="1" /> Now when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall he became angry and was quite upset. He derided the Jews,

<p class="bodytext">So it happened that the Jews who were living near them came and warned us repeatedly<n id="1" /> about all the schemes<n id="2" /> they were plotting<n id="3" /> against us.p>

<p class="bodytext">There were 150 Jews and officials who dined with me routinely,<n id="1" /> in addition to those who came to us from the nations<n id="2" /> all around us.

The officials did not know where I had gone or what I had been doing, for up to this point I had not told any of the Jews or the priests or the nobles or the officials or the rest of the workers.

and in the presence of his colleagues<n id="1" /> and the army of Samaria<n id="2" /> he said, &#8220;What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they be left to themselves?<n id="3" /> Will they again offer sacrifice? Will they finish this in a day? Can they bring these burnt stones to life again from piles of dust?&#8221;p>

I said to them, &#8220;To the extent possible we have bought back our fellow Jews<n id="1" /> who had been sold to the Gentiles. But now you yourselves want to sell your own countrymen,<n id="2" /> so that we can then buy them back!&#8221; They were utterly silent, and could find nothing to say.p>

Written in it were the following words:p> <p class="bodytext">&#8220;Among the nations it is rumored<n id="1" /> (and Geshem<n id="2" /> has substantiated<n id="3" /> this) that you and the Jews have intentions of revolting, and for this reason you are building the wall. Furthermore, according to these rumors<n id="4" /> you are going to become their king.