Samaria Resettled

²⁴ The king of Assyria^(A) brought people from Babylon, Kuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim^(B) and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns.

³⁴ Where are the gods of Hamath^(A) and Arpad?^(B) Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?

¹³ Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad? Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?”^(A)

³⁰ The people from Babylon made Sukkoth Benoth, those from Kuthah made Nergal, and those from Hamath made Ashima; ³¹ the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire as sacrifices to Adrammelek^(A) and Anammelek, the gods of Sepharvaim.^(B)

⁵ These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans.^(A)

¹³ Where is the king of Hamath or the king of Arpad?^(A) Where are the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim,^(B) Hena and Ivvah?”^(C)

¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad?^(A) Where are the gods of Sepharvaim?^(B) Have they rescued Samaria^(C) from my hand?

² they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, “Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon^(A) king of Assyria, who brought us here.”^(B)

³ But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.”^(C)

⁴ Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building.^{[a](D) 5} They bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Later Opposition Under Xerxes and Artaxerxes

⁶ At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes,^[b](E) they lodged an accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem.^(F)

⁷ And in the days of Artaxerxes^(G) king of Persia, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and the rest of his associates wrote a letter to Artaxerxes. The letter was written in Aramaic script and in the Aramaic^(H) language.^[c][d]

⁸ Rehum the commanding officer and Shimshai the secretary wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king as follows: