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1The enemies of the people of Judah and Benjamin heard that those who had returned from exile were rebuilding the Temple of the LORD , the God of Israel.
2So they went to see Zerubbabel and the heads of the clans and said, “Let us join you in building the Temple. We worship the same God you worship, and we have been offering sacrifices to him ever since Esarhaddon, emperor of Assyria, sent us here to live.”[#2 Kgs 17.24–41]
3Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the heads of the clans said to them, “We don't need your help to build a temple for the LORD our God. We will build it ourselves, just as Cyrus, emperor of Persia, commanded us.”
4Then the people who had been living in the land tried to discourage and frighten the Jews and keep them from building.
5They also bribed Persian government officials to work against them. They kept on doing this throughout the reign of Cyrus and into the reign of Darius.[#4.5 : The account of these events is continued at verse 24. The material in verses 6–23 describes events which took place almost a century later.]
6At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes the emperor, the enemies of the people living in Judah and Jerusalem brought written charges against them.[#Esth 1.1]
7Again, in the reign of Artaxerxes, emperor of Persia, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and their associates wrote a letter to the emperor. The letter was written in Aramaic and was to be translated when read.[#4.7 : From 4.8 to 6.18 this book is not in Hebrew, but Aramaic, the official language of the Persian Empire.; #4.7 … ; or It was in Aramaic and was written in the Aramaic script.]
8Also Rehum, the governor, and Shimshai, the secretary of the province, wrote the following letter to Artaxerxes about Jerusalem:
11This is the text of the letter:
17The emperor sent this answer:
23As soon as this letter from Artaxerxes was read to Rehum, Shimshai, and their associates, they hurried to Jerusalem and forced the Jews to stop rebuilding the city.
24Work on the Temple had been stopped and had remained at a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius, emperor of Persia.[#Hag 1.1; Zech 1.1]