¹⁷ So I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been burned.^(A) Come, let’s rebuild Jerusalem’s wall,^(B) so that we will no longer be a disgrace.”

¹⁹ When Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official,^(A) and Geshem the Arab^(B) heard about this, they mocked and despised us, and said, “What is this you’re doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”