Ono was a city on the coastal plain of Israel, in the region allotted to the tribe of Benjamin, near Lod. It was part of a fertile lowland between the hills of Judea and the Mediterranean Sea.
The Bible mentions its founding in 1 Chronicles 8:12, among the cities built by the descendants of Benjamin.
After the Babylonian exile, Jewish families returned to the land and settled in Lod and Ono, a territory also called the valley of the craftsmen.
The best known episode connected to the place happened during the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. Sanballat and Geshem, adversaries of Nehemiah, repeatedly invited him to a meeting in one of the villages of the plain of Ono, but it was a trap meant to stop him.
Nehemiah refused, with a line that has become a symbol of perseverance: I am doing a great work and cannot come down.
Ono appears only briefly in the Bible, but it illustrates two truths: the faithfulness of a people rebuilding their land after exile, and the courage of a leader who would not be distracted from the work of God.
