Nehemiah 6:3

Young's Literal Translation

And I send unto them messengers, saying, `A great work I am doing, and I am not able to come down; why doth the work cease when I let it alone, and have come down unto you?'

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing important work and cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?”

Hebrew Names Version
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?

King James Version
And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?

English Standard Version
And I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?"

New Century Version
So I sent messengers to them with this answer: "I am doing a great work, and I can't come down. I don't want the work to stop while I leave to meet you."

New English Translation
So I sent messengers to them saying, "I am engaged in an important work, and I am unable to come down. Why should the work come to a halt when I leave it to come down to you?"

Amplified Bible
So I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave to come down to [meet with] you?"

New American Standard Bible
So I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and am unable to come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?"

World English Bible
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?

Geneva Bible (1587)
Therefore I sent messengers vnto them, saying, I haue a great worke to doe, and I can not come downe: why should the worke cease, whiles I leaue it, and come downe to you?

Legacy Standard Bible
So I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?"

Berean Standard Bible
So 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?"

Contemporary English Version
So I sent messengers to tell them, "My work is too important to stop now and go there. I can't afford to slow down the work just to visit with you."

Complete Jewish Bible
so I sent them messengers with this message: "I'm too busy with important work to come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it to come down to you?"

Darby Translation
And I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down. Why should the work cease, whilst I leave it and come down to you?

Easy-to-Read Version
So I sent messengers to them with this answer: "I am doing important work, so I cannot come down. I don't want the work to stop just so I can come down and meet with you."

George Lamsa Translation
And I sent a messenger to them, saying, I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down, lest the work cease, while I leave it and come down to you.

Good News Translation
I sent messengers to say to them, "I am doing important work and can't go down there. I am not going to let the work stop just to go and see you."

Lexham English Bible
So I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and I am not able to come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you all?"

Literal Translation
And I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Notwithstondynge I sent messaungers vnto them, sayenge: I haue a greate busynes to do, I can not come downe. The worke shulde stonde still, yf I were necligent, and came downe to you.

American Standard Version
And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?

Bible in Basic English
And I sent men to them saying, I am doing a great work, so that it is not possible for me to come down: is the work to be stopped while I go away from it and come down to you?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And I sent messengers vnto them, saying: I haue a great businesse to do, and I can not come downe: Why should the worke ceasse, whilest I leaue it and come downe to you?

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And I sent messengers unto them, saying: 'I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down; why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?'

King James Version (1611)
And I sent messengers vnto them, saying, I am doing a great worke, so that I can not come down: why should the worke cease, whilest I leaue it, and come downe to you?

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
So I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work, and I shall not be able to come down, lest the work should cease: as soon as I shall have finished it, I will come down to you.

English Revised Version
And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: Why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Therfor Y sente messangeris to hem, and Y seide, Y make a greet werk, and Y mai not go doun, lest perauenture it be doon retchelesli, whanne Y come, and go doun to you.

Update Bible Version
And 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?

Webster's Bible Translation
And I sent messengers to them, saying, I [am] doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?

New King James Version
So I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?"

New Living Translation
so I replied by sending this message to them: "I am engaged in a great work, so I can't come. Why should I stop working to come and meet with you?"

New Life Bible
So I sent men with word to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?"

New Revised Standard
So I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it to come down to you?"

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
So I sent unto them messengers, saying, A great work, am, I, doing, and cannot come down, - wherefore should the work cease whilst I leave it, and come down unto you?

Douay-Rheims Bible
And I sent messengers to them, saying: I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down, lest it be neglected whilst I come, and go down to you.

Revised Standard Version
And I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?"

THE MESSAGE
"I'm Doing a Great Work; I Can't Come Down" When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that there were no more breaks in it—even though I hadn't yet installed the gates— Sanballat and Geshem sent this message: "Come and meet with us at Kephirim in the valley of Ono." I knew they were scheming to hurt me so I sent messengers back with this: "I'm doing a great work; I can't come down. Why should the work come to a standstill just so I can come down to see you?"

New American Standard Bible (1995)
So I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?"

Contextual Overview

¹ And it cometh to pass, when it hath been heard by Sanballat, and Tobiah, and by Geshem the Arabian, and by the rest of our enemies, that I have builded the wall, and there hath not been left in it a breach, (also, till that time the doors I had not set up in the gates,) ² that Sanballat sendeth, also Geshem, unto me, saying, `Come and we meet together in the villages, in the valley of Ono;' and they are thinking to do to me evil. <sup>3</sup> And I send unto them messengers, saying, `A great work I am doing, and I am not able to come down; why doth the work cease when I let it alone, and have come down unto you?' ⁴ and they send unto me, according to this word, four times, and I return them [word] according to this word. ⁵ And Sanballat sendeth unto me, according to this word, a fifth time, his servant, and an open letter in his hand; ⁶ it is written in it, `Among the nations it hath been heard, and Gashmu is saying: Thou and the Jews are thinking to rebel, therefore thou art building the wall, and thou hast been to them for a king -- according to these words! <sup>7</sup> And also, prophets thou hast appointed to call for thee in Jerusalem, saying, A king [is] in Judah, and now it is heard by the king according to these words; and now come, and we take counsel together.' <sup>8</sup> And I send unto him, saying, `It hath not been according to these words that thou art saying, for from thine own heart thou art devising them;' ⁹ for all of them are making us afraid, saying, `Their hands are too feeble for the work, and it is not done;' and now, strengthen Thou my hands.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

And I sent: Proverbs 14:15, Matthew 10:16

I am doing: Ecclesiastes 9:10, Luke 14:30, John 9:4, 1 Timothy 4:15, 1 Timothy 4:16

Reciprocal: Ezra 4:24 - So Nehemiah 6:11 - Should such Acts 6:2 - we should Acts 8:1 - except

Cross-References

Genesis 6:1
And it cometh to pass that mankind have begun to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters have been born to them,

Genesis 6:13
And God said to Noah, `An end of all flesh hath come before Me, for the earth hath been full of violence from their presence; and lo, I am destroying them with the earth.

Genesis 6:14
`Make for thyself an ark of gopher-wood; rooms dost thou make with the ark, and thou hast covered it within and without with cypress;

Genesis 6:15
and this [is] that which thou dost with it: three hundred cubits [is] the length of the ark, fifty cubits its breadth, and thirty cubits its height;

Genesis 6:16
a window dost thou make for the ark, and unto a cubit thou dost restrain it from above; and the opening of the ark thou dost put in its side, -- lower, second, and third [stories] dost thou make it.

Genesis 6:18
`And I have established My covenant with thee, and thou hast come in unto the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy son's wives with thee;

Genesis 6:20
Of the fowl after its kind, and of the cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every [sort] they come in unto thee, to keep alive.

Numbers 11:17
and I have come down and spoken with thee there, and have kept back of the Spirit which [is] upon thee, and have put on them, and they have borne with thee some of the burden of the people, and thou dost not bear [it] thyself alone.

Nehemiah 9:30
`And Thou drawest over them many years, and testifiest against them by Thy Spirit, by the hand of Thy prophets, and they have not given ear, and Thou dost give them into the hand of peoples of the lands,

Psalms 78:39
And He remembereth that they [are] flesh, A wind going on -- and it returneth not.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And I sent messengers unto them,.... He did not show any open contempt of them, nor did he even return answer by the messenger that came from them, but sent some of his own people to them:

saying, I am doing a great work; was about an affair of great importance, very busy, and not at leisure to give them a meeting:

so that I cannot come down; Jerusalem being built on an eminence, and the place proposed to meet at in a plain, going thither is expressed by coming down:

why should the work cease, while I leave it, and come down to you? signifying that it would cease if he left it; and it being of greater consequence than anything they could have to converse about, he argues it would be wrong to relinquish it on such an account; this was the reason he thought fit to give, but was not the only, nor the principal reason, which is suggested in the preceding verse.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Nehemiah 6:3. I am doing a great work — Though he knew their design, he does not think it prudent to mention it. Had he done so, they would probably have gone to extremities, finding that they were discovered; and perhaps in a formidable body attacked Jerusalem, when ill provided to sustain such a shock. They wished to effect their purpose rather by treachery than by open violence. I know not any language which a man who is employed on important labours can use more suitably, as an answer to the thousand invitations and provocations he may have to remit his work, enter into useless or trivial conferences, or notice weak, wicked, and malicious attacks on his work and his motives: "I am doing a great work, so I cannot stoop to your nonsense, or notice your malevolence. Why should the work cease, while I leave it, and come down to such as you?"