With the queen sitting beside him, the king said to me, "How long will your journey be and when will you return?" So it pleased the king and he sent me, and I set for him an appointed time.

At the time I also said to the people, "Let each man and his servant spend the night inside Jerusalem, so that they will be a guard for us in the night and work in the day."

Now when it was reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and to the rest of our enemies that I had built the wall and that no gap was left in it--though up to that time I had not erected doors in the gates--

And Sanballat sent his servant with an open letter, [another] word like this to me a fifth time, in his hand.

the descendants of Barkos, the descendants of Sisera, the descendants of Temah,

Therefore you gave them into the hand of their enemy, and they brought trouble to them. Then in the time of their trouble they cried out to you, and you heard from the heavens, and according to your great compassions, you gave them saviors, and you saved them from the hand of their enemies.

In those days I saw in Judah [people] treading the wine press on the Sabbath, bringing in heaps [of grain] and loading them on donkeys along with wine, grapes and figs, and every kind of burden and bringing [it all] to Jerusalem on the day of the Sabbath. And I warned them at that time against selling food.

But I warned them and said to them, "Why are you spending the night opposite the wall? If you do [it again], I will lay hands against you." From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath.