Come, Let Us Meet in Ono
1 Now when it was reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arabian, and to the rest of our enemies that I had built the wall, and that there was no breach left in it (though even to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come! Let’s meet together in the villages in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to harm me. 3 I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work, so that I can’t come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you?” 4 They sent to me four times like this; and I answered them the same way. 5 Then Sanballat sent his servant to me the same way the fifth time with an open letter in his hand, 6 in which was written, “It is reported among the nations, and Gashmu says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel. Because of that, you are building the wall. You would be their king, according to these words. 7 You have also appointed prophets to proclaim of you at Jerusalem, saying, ‘There is a king in Judah!’ Now it will be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let’s take counsel together.” 8 Then I sent to him, saying, “There are no such things done as you say, but you imagine them out of your own heart.” 9 For they all would have made us afraid, saying, “Their hands will be weakened from the work, that it not be done.” But now, strengthen my hands.
With the wall closed, the attack shifts from the stones to the man, and the fifth letter arrives unsealed on purpose.
The situation has inverted, and verse 1 states it: the wall is built, no breach left in it, only the doors not yet hung. A wall without breaches cannot be rushed; a project this near finished can only be stopped by removing its head. So the campaign turns personal, and the chapter is a study in the forms that takes.
First, the meeting request: come! Let's meet together in the villages in the plain of Ono. Ono lay far from Jerusalem, out on the edge of Judah's territory toward Samaria — a neutral venue by the look of it, an ambush by intent: but they intended to harm me.
Nehemiah's refusal has become proverbial, and its genius is that it declines the premise rather than the men: I am doing a great work, so that I can't come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you? No accusation, no fear shown — just a priority stated so plainly it cannot be argued with. Four times they send; four times I answered them the same way. The repetition is the tactic and the repetition is the defense.
The fifth letter changes instruments: it arrives open — unsealed, its contents readable by every courier and official on the road, which is the point. It is not a letter; it is a publication. And its contents are the old poison in new ink: it is reported among the nations... that you and the Jews intend to rebel... you would be their king, complete with invented prophets proclaiming there is a king in Judah! The rumor is engineered for one reader — a Persian court that had stopped Jerusalem's builders on exactly this charge before Ezra 4:19.
The answer is two sentences and total: there are no such things done as you say, but you imagine them out of your own heart.
And then the memoir discloses the mechanism and answers it, in one verse: they all would have made us afraid, saying, "Their hands will be weakened from the work" — the book's hand-language, targeted by the enemy this time — but now, strengthen my hands.
That last clause is a prayer in mid-sentence again Nehemiah 2:4, four words long. The whole campaign was aimed at hands; the defense was to ask God to hold them steady.
settled What this mark means