12. Then I realized that God hadn’t sent him at all but that he spoke this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
13. He was hired to frighten me and to make me sin by acting in this way. Then they could give me a bad name and discredit me.
14. My God, remember these deeds of Tobiah and Sanballat! Also remember Noadiah the prophetess and the rest of the prophets who have been trying to frighten me.
15. So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Elul. It took fifty-two days.
16. When our enemies heard about this, all of the nations around us were afraid and their confidence was greatly shaken. They knew that this work was completed with the help of our God.
17. In addition, in those days the officials of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters were coming to them.
18. Many in Judah were bound to him by solemn pledge because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah, Arah’s son, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam, Berechiah’s son.