3 Now ^aTobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Whatever they build, if even a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall.”  ‡

4 ^aHear, O our God, for we are despised; ^bturn their reproach on their own heads, and give them as plunder to a land of captivity!  ‡

6 So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

7 Now it happened, ^awhen Sanballat, Tobiah, ^bthe Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and the¹ gaps were beginning to be closed, that they became very angry,  ‡