1And when Samblat heard that we were building a wall, it grieved him, and his anger grew and he mocked at the Jews. 2And he said to his brothers and to the army of the Samaritans: “What are the Jews doing and boasting? They have abandoned the altars for themselves, and they eat by day as they set up these stones from a dung hill of dust and they are burned!” 3And Tubia an Ammonite was standing with him and said: “However they build, I know that a fox may climb and overturn the stones of their wall!”

4“Hear our God, for we are a laughing stock, and return their shame to their heads, and give them as prey in the land of their captivity. 5Do not forgive their debts, and let not their sins be blotted out before you, because they rage against the building that we build!

6And we shall build the wall!” And they built it and the wall was finished unto its midpoint; then the mouth of all the people was opened to work.

7Then, when Samblat and Tubia and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdudites heard that time was given for the wall of Jerusalem to be built, and the breach in it began to be closed, it grieved them greatly. 8And they all plotted as one to come to fight in Jerusalem and to make a stumbling block for them.

9And we prayed before God to set Guards over us by day and by night before them.

10And the Jews were saying: “The power of the Porters has decreased and the dust has intensified greatly, and we are unable to build the wall!

11And those who hate us were saying: ‘They will not know and they will not see until we fall upon them and we will kill them and we will stop their work!’” 12And the Jews who dwelt with them came and they were saying to us: ‘Behold, therefore, ten times they came to fight with you from all of those places where they have been shooting at them. 13And they came and they stood from behind the wall to fight with you with their arrows, and they divided the army to the families with their swords and spears and bows. 14And I was afraid and I stood up and I said to the Princes and to the Governors and to the rest of the people: ‘You shall not be afraid before them! Remember LORD JEHOVAH, great and awesome, and fight for the sake of your brothers and for the sake of your sons and your daughters!’

15Then when our enemies heard that the matter was known to us, and LORD JEHOVAH abolished their counsels, and we all returned and we went up to the wall and we were working, all of us, each man at his work 16And half of the young men from that day, and more than half of the people they made workers and half of them were holding spears and shields and bows and breastplates, and the workers stood behind the Jews and were building the wall. 17And those who carried on poles carried in his one hand and did the work, and in one he carried a weapon. 18And the Stone Masons held, each man, a sword, and he stood and built, and he who sounded on the horn stood behind him. 19And I said to the Princes and to the Governors and to the rest of the people: “The work is great and spread out and we are separated and we stand on the wall and we are distant, each man from his brother 20And in the place where you hear the sound of the horn, there you shall come to us, and our God will fight for our sake.

21And we shall be doing our work, and half of us shall be holding spears, from the rising of the dawn until the stars will come out!” 22Also at that time I said to the people: “A man and his boy shall be spending the night within the streets of Jerusalem, and they shall be guarding it by night and by day, and they shall be doing the work.” 23And I and my brothers and my boy Servants and the men Guards who followed me did not take off our clothes for a month of days, each man who arrived for it.