Atlas Biblica

    Nehemiah · 19 verses

    Nehemiah 6

    Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

    The chapter

    What happens here

    Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

    The fifth invitation arrived as an unsealed letter, and the proposed hiding place was offered by a man confined to his house.

    The invitation that would not take no for an answervv. 1–14

    Sanballat and Geshem invited Nehemiah to meet in a village on the plain of Ono, while quietly planning harm. Four times the invitation came back with the same answer; on the fifth, it arrived in the hand of a young servant, carrying an unsealed letter and a rather ambitious allegation: revolt, kingship, and prophets proclaiming a king in Judah. Nehemiah called the whole business invented. Then Shemaiah, confined to his house, proposed the temple as a hiding place from assassins. It sounded prudent until Nehemiah noticed that entering the temple to save his life would itself be the sin required by the plot. A refuge with a trapdoor, in other words. Tobiah and Sanballat had hired Shemaiah, and Noadiah and other prophets had also tried to intimidate him.

    A finished wall and unfinished correspondencevv. 15–19

    The wall was completed in fifty-two days, on the twenty-fifth of Elul. The surrounding nations, hearing of it, became afraid and disheartened, recognizing the work as accomplished by God. Yet the letters continued. The nobles of Judah wrote to Tobiah, Tobiah wrote to them, and many were bound to him by oath through marriage: he was Shecaniah’s son-in-law, while his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah. The nobles praised Tobiah’s good deeds to Nehemiah and carried Nehemiah’s words back to Tobiah, who replied with still more letters meant to intimidate him. The wall was finished; the correspondence, rather less impressively, was not.

    The text

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    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Neh 6:1When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left—though to that time I had not yet installed the doors in the gates—

    2. Neh 6:2Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.” But they were planning to harm me.

    3. Neh 6:3So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it to go down to you?”

    4. Neh 6:4Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave the same reply.

    5. Neh 6:5The fifth time, Sanballat sent me this same message by his young servant, who had in his hand an unsealed letter

    6. Neh 6:6that read: “It is reported among the nations—and Geshem agrees—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and this is why you are building the wall. According to these reports, you are to become their king,

    7. Neh 6:7and you have even appointed prophets in Jerusalem to proclaim on your behalf: ‘There is a king in Judah.’ Soon these rumors will reach the ears of the king. So come, let us confer together.”

    8. Neh 6:8Then I sent him this reply: “There is nothing to these rumors you are spreading; you are inventing them in your own mind.”

    9. Neh 6:9For they were all trying to frighten us, saying, “Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will never be finished.” But now, my God, strengthen my hands.

    10. Neh 6:10Later, I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his house. He said: “Let us meet at the house of God inside the temple. Let us shut the temple doors because they are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you!”

    11. Neh 6:11But I replied, “Should a man like me run away? Should one like me go into the temple to save his own life? I will not go!”

    12. Neh 6:12I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had uttered this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

    13. Neh 6:13He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would sin by doing as he suggested, so they could give me a bad name in order to discredit me.

    14. Neh 6:14O my God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat for what they have done, and also Noadiah the prophetess and the other prophets who tried to intimidate me.

    15. Neh 6:15So the wall was completed in fifty-two days, on the twenty-fifth of Elul.

    16. Neh 6:16When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and disheartened, for they realized that this task had been accomplished by our God.

    17. Neh 6:17Also in those days, the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and Tobiah’s letters kept coming to them.

    18. Neh 6:18For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, since he was a son-in-law of Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah.

    19. Neh 6:19Moreover, these nobles kept reporting to me Tobiah’s good deeds, and they relayed my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 225 passages were voted onto 19 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 16Joshua 5:1Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and their spirits failed for fear of the Israelites.
    • 16Psalms 126:2Then our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with shouts of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.”
    • 3John 9:4While it is daytime, we must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work.
    • 3Matthew 10:16Behold, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.
    • 16Nehemiah 4:7When Sanballat and Tobiah, together with the Arabs, Ammonites, and Ashdodites, heard that the repair to the walls of Jerusalem was progressing and that the gaps were being closed, they were furious,
    • 9Psalms 138:3On the day I called, You answered me; You emboldened me and strengthened my soul.
    • 16Nehemiah 2:10But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were deeply disturbed that someone had come to seek the well-being of the Israelites.
    • 16Nehemiah 4:1Now when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he was furious and filled with indignation. He ridiculed the Jews
    • 1Nehemiah 2:19But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about this, they mocked us and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”
    • 21 Chronicles 8:12The sons of Elpaal: Eber, Misham, Shemed (who built Ono and Lod with its villages),
    • 31 Timothy 4:15–16Be diligent in these matters and absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all.
    • 14Nehemiah 13:29Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.
    • 16Acts 5:38So in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone. Let them go! For if their purpose or endeavor is of human origin, it will fail.
    • 2Psalms 37:12The wicked scheme against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them,
    • 8Psalms 52:2Your tongue devises destruction like a sharpened razor, O worker of deceit.
    • 9Nehemiah 4:10–14Meanwhile, the people of Judah said: “The strength of the laborer fails, and there is so much rubble that we will never be able to rebuild the wall.”

    Onward

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    Next chapterNehemiah 773 verses.Named hereArabiaEverything the graph connects to this name.BookNehemiahAll 13 chapters.Every bookThe Bible66 books, 1,189 chapters.