For I have heard the gossip of many people, ‘Terror is on every side! Report him; let’s report him! ’ Everyone I trusted watches for my fall. ‘Perhaps he will be deceived so that we might prevail against him and take our vengeance on him.’
When Sanballat, Tobiah, and the Arabs, Ammonites, and Ashdodites heard that the repair to the walls of Jerusalem was progressing and that the gaps were being closed, they became furious.
‘Be strong and courageous! Don’t be afraid or discouraged before the king of Assyria or before the large army that is with him, for there are more with us than with him.
Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until an Anointed One, the ruler, will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be rebuilt with a square and a moat, but in difficult times.