³ But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers’ households of Israel said to them, “^(A)You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build to the Lord God of Israel, ^(B)as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.”

⁴ Then ^(C)the people of the land ^[a]discouraged the people of Judah, and frightened them from building, ⁵ and hired counselors against them to frustrate their counsel all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

⁶ Now in the reign of ^[b](D)Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

¹¹ this is the copy of the letter which they sent to him:

“To King Artaxerxes: Your servants, the men in the region beyond the River, and now ¹² let it be known to the king that the Jews who came up from you have come to us at Jerusalem; they are rebuilding ^(A)the rebellious and evil city and ^(B)are finishing the walls and repairing the foundations. ¹³ Now let it be known to the king, that if that city is rebuilt and the walls are finished, ^(C)they will not pay tribute, custom or toll, and it will damage the revenue of the kings. ¹⁴ Now because we ^[a]are in the service of the palace, and it is not fitting for us to see the king’s dishonor, therefore we have sent and informed the king, ¹⁵ so that a search may be made in the record books of your fathers. And you will discover in the record books and learn that that city is a rebellious city and damaging to kings and provinces, and that they have incited revolt within it in past days; therefore that city was laid waste. ¹⁶ We inform the king that if that city is rebuilt and the walls finished, as a result you will have no possession in the province beyond the River.”

The King Replies and Work Stops

¹⁷ Then the king sent an answer to Rehum the commander, to Shimshai the scribe, and to the rest of their colleagues who live in Samaria and in the rest of the provinces beyond the River: “Peace. And now ¹⁸ the document which you sent to us has been ^[b](D)translated and read before me. ¹⁹ A decree has been ^[c]issued by me, and a search has been made and it has been discovered that that city has risen up against the kings in past days, that rebellion and revolt have been perpetrated in it, ^20 (E)that mighty kings have ^[d]ruled over Jerusalem, governing all the provinces ^(F)beyond the River, and that ^(G)tribute, custom and toll were paid to them. ²¹ So, now issue a decree to make these men stop work, that this city may not be rebuilt until a decree is issued by me. ²² Beware of being negligent in carrying out this matter; why should damage increase to the detriment of the kings?”

²³ Then as soon as the copy of King Artaxerxes’ document was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their colleagues, they went in haste to Jerusalem to the Jews and stopped them by force of arms.

²⁴ Then work on the house of God in Jerusalem ceased, and it was stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

^5 (A)These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: “Do not ^[a]go ^[b]in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the ^(B)Samaritans;

^48 (A)The Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a ^(B)Samaritan and ^(C)have a demon?”

²⁸ And he said to them, “You yourselves know how ^(A)unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet ^(B)God has shown me that I should not call any man ^[a]unholy or unclean.