Facing opposition

¹When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple for the LORD , the God of Israel,

²they came to Zerubbabel and the heads of the families and said to them, “Let’s build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we’ve been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Assyria’s King Esarhaddon, who brought us here.”

³But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of the families in Israel replied, “You’ll have no part with us in building a house for our God. We alone will build because the LORD , the God of Israel, and Persia’s King Cyrus commanded us.”

⁴The neighboring peoples discouraged the people of Judah, made them afraid to build,[#4.4 Or peoples of the lands]

⁵and bribed officials to frustrate their plan. They did this throughout the rule of Persia’s King Cyrus until the rule of Persia’s King Darius.

Writing to King Artaxerxes

⁶In the rule of Ahasuerus, at the beginning of his rule, they composed an indictment against those who lived in Judah and Jerusalem.

⁷In the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their associates wrote to Persia’s King Artaxerxes. The letter was written in Aramaic and translated.[#4.7 Heb adds in Aramaic , reporting that 4:8–6:18 is written in Aramaic.]

⁸Rehum the royal deputy and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter concerning Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows:

(

¹¹This is a copy of the letter they sent to him.)

Artaxerxes responds

¹⁷The king sent this answer:

²³When the copy of King Artaxerxes’ letter was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their colleagues, they hurried to Jerusalem to oppose the Jews and made them stop by force of arms.[#4.23 Or power and force]

²⁴At that time the work on God’s house in Jerusalem stopped and was suspended until the second year of the rule of Persia’s King Darius.