Ezra 4:1-5

New King James Version

Resistance to Rebuilding the Temple

4 Now when ^(A)the ^[a]adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the descendants of the captivity were building the temple of the Lord God of Israel, ² they came to Zerubbabel and the heads of the fathers’ houses, and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do; and we have sacrificed to Him ^(B)since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.” ³ But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Israel said to them, ^(C)“You may do nothing with us to build a ^[b]house for our God; but we alone will build to the Lord God of Israel, as ^(D)King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.” ⁴ Then ^(E)the people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building, ⁵ and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of ^(F)Darius king of Persia.