Artaxerxes’s Reply

¹⁷ The king sent a reply to his chief deputy Rehum, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their colleagues living in Samaria and elsewhere in the region west of the Euphrates River:

Greetings.

¹⁸ The letter you sent us has been translated and read^[a](A) in my presence. ¹⁹ I issued a decree and a search was conducted. It was discovered that this city has had uprisings against kings since ancient times, and there have been rebellions and revolts in it. ²⁰ Powerful kings have also ruled over Jerusalem and exercised authority over the whole region west of the Euphrates River, and tribute, duty, and land tax were paid to them. ²¹ Therefore, issue an order for these men to stop, so that this city will not be rebuilt until a further decree has been pronounced by me.^{(B) 22} See that you not neglect this matter. Otherwise, the damage will increase and the royal interests^[b] will suffer.

²³ As soon as the text of King Artaxerxes’s letter was read to Rehum, Shimshai the scribe, and their colleagues,^(C) they immediately went to the Jews in Jerusalem and forcibly stopped them.

Rebuilding of the Temple Resumed

²⁴ Now the construction of God’s house in Jerusalem had stopped and remained at a standstill until the second year of the reign of King Darius of Persia.^(D)