Quotes About Resilience

The Benjamites rallied to Abner, formed a single unit, and took their stand atop a hill.

Now the king and his men marched to Jerusalem against the Jebusites who inhabited the land. The Jebusites said to David: “You will never get in here. Even the blind and lame can repel you.” For they thought, “David cannot get in here.”

When the Arameans saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they regrouped.

Then David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ëDo not let this matter upset you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city and demolish it.í Encourage him with these words.”

He threw stones at David and at all the servants of the king, though the troops and all the mighty men were on Davidís right and left.

They confronted me in my day of calamity, but the LORD was my support.

I devoured and crushed them so they could not rise; they have fallen under my feet.

He also killed an Egyptian, a huge man. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club, snatched the spear from his hand, and killed the Egyptian with his own spear.

They destroyed the cities, and each man threw stones on every good field until it was covered. They stopped up every spring and cut down every good tree. Only Kir-haraseth was left with stones in place, but men with slings surrounded it and attacked it as well.

Jehoahaz had no army left, except fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers, because the king of Aram had destroyed them and made them like the dust at threshing.

Therefore their inhabitants, devoid of power, are dismayed and ashamed. They are like plants in the field, tender green shoots, grass on the rooftops, scorched before it is grown.

Then the people of the land set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to build.

But 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?”

The Valley Gate was repaired by Hanun and the residents of Zanoah. They rebuilt it, installed its doors, bolts, and bars, and repaired a thousand cubits of the wall as far as the Dung Gate.

Now when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he was furious and filled with indignation. He ridiculed the Jews

before his associates and the army of Samaria, saying, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Can they restore the wall by themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Can they bring these burnt stones back to life from the mounds of rubble?”

Then Tobiah the Ammonite, who was beside him, said, “If even a fox were to climb up on what they are building, it would break down their wall of stones!”

When 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,

and all of them conspired to come and fight against Jerusalem and create a hindrance.

And our enemies said, “Before they know or see a thing, we will come into their midst, kill them, and put an end to the work.”

At that time the Jews who lived nearby came and told us ten times over, “Wherever you turn, they will attack us.”

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?”

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

But 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!”