But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammontite servant, and GESHEM the Arabian, heard it, they ridiculed us, and despised us, and said, "What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?"

1. Now when it was reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, and to GESHEM the Arabian, and to the rest of our enemies, that I had built the wall, and that there was no breach left in it (though even to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates)

2. Sanballat and GESHEM sent to me, saying, "Come, let us meet together in the villages in the plain of Ono." But they intended to harm me.

3. I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work, so that I can't come down. Why should the work cease, while I leave it, and come down to you?"

4. They sent to me four times like this; and I answered them the same way.

5. Then Sanballat sent his servant to me the same way the fifth time with an open letter in his hand,

6. in which was written, "It is reported among the nations, and Gashmu says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel. Because of that, you are building the wall. You would be their king, according to these words.