Nehemiah 4:1-6 - Opposition Begins

¹ But it happened that when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews. ² He spoke before his brothers and the army of Samaria, and said, "What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, since they are burned?" ³ Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, "What they are building, if a fox climbed up it, he would break down their stone wall."

⁴ "Hear, our God; for we are despised; and turn back their reproach on their own head, give them up for a spoil in a land of captivity; ⁵ don't cover their iniquity, and don't let their sin be blotted out from before you; for they have insulted the builders."

⁶ So we built the wall; and all the wall was joined together to half [the height] of it: for the people had a mind to work.