Ezra 4:5-7

EasyEnglish Bible

⁵ They paid bribes to government officers to work against the Israelite builders. Then they could not do the work. They continued to do this all the time that King Cyrus ruled Persia, until Darius became king.

More trouble for the Jews

⁶ When Xerxes became king of Persia, Judah's enemies wrote a letter to him.^[a] They said that the people who lived in Jerusalem and the rest of Judah were doing a bad thing.

⁷ Later, when Artaxerxes was king of Persia, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and their friends wrote a letter to him. They wrote it in the Aramaic language. People translated it for the king to understand.