- Now back to the action.
- Sanballat ridicules the Jews, and asks his associate and the army of Samaria what these Jews think they're doing, rebuilding their city and its walls.
- Tobiah claims that they're doing such a shabby job of it that even a fox could knock down the wall.
- Nice try, Tobiah.
- Nehemiah prays, asking God to bring the guilt of these enemies down on them since they taunted his people.
- So the people manage to rebuild the wall up to half its previous height, working really, really hard.
- But Sanballat, Tobiah, and the Arabs, Ammonites, and Ashdodites get even angrier when they hear how well the rebuilding and repairs are going.
- They plot to attack the people of Judah. But the people pray and set up a guard 24/7 to keep watch against their enemies.
- The workers complain about how difficult the rebuilding has become, with tons of rubble piled everywhere. And the people in the outlying towns warn about the enemies who are plotting against them.
- Nehemiah reorganizes things: he stations people in strategic locations around the wall, guarding the reconstruction with weapons.
- He urges the nobles, officials, and everyone else not to be afraid, to remember God, and to fight to protect their kin, their families, and their homes.
- The enemies realize that their plots been foiled and they don't attack.
- However, from that time on, half the workers hold weapons and guard the site while the other half work.
- The workers themselves work with one hand and carry a weapon with the other. The builders all have swords strapped to their sides.
- Nehemiah tells the nobles to come to their aid if the workers blow a trumpet for assistance, since they're pretty spread out as they rebuild.
- Nehemiah orders everyone to spend the night inside Jerusalem itself so that they'll be able to repel any nighttime attacks.
- Neither Nehemiah nor his brothers, servants, or men of the guard stop to even wash or change their clothes, and they keep their weapons in their right hands at all times.
- It's getting pretty funky in there.