1. 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—
2. Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together in one of the villages in the plain of Ono.” But they planned to do evil to me.
3. So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I am not able to come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you all?”
4. And they sent a message to me four times like this, and I returned an answer like this to them.
5. And Sanballat sent his servant with an open letter, another word like this to me a fifth time, in his hand.