4:6–23 This material is a separate section, describing opposition to rebuilding the wall after Darius and during the reigns of Xerxes (486–465 b.c.) and Artaxerxes I (465–424 b.c.). The narrative justifies calling the neighboring peoples in v. 1 “adversaries.” Second, it shows that opposition was not a brief and passing problem, but a foretaste of prolonged opposition to the people of God in rebuilding God’s ‘‘house”—the temple, but also the city and the nation.