Ezra 4:1-11

New International Version

Opposition to the Rebuilding

4 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building^(A) a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, ²they 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^(B) king of Assyria, who brought us here.”^(C)

³But 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.”^(D)

⁴Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building.^[a]^(E) ⁵They 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

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

⁷And in the days of Artaxerxes^(H) 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^(I) language.^[c]^[d]

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

⁹Rehum the commanding officer and Shimshai the secretary, together with the rest of their associates^(J)—the judges, officials and administrators over the people from Persia, Uruk^(K) and Babylon, the Elamites of Susa,^(L) ¹⁰and the other people whom the great and honorable Ashurbanipal^(M) deported and settled in the city of Samaria and elsewhere in Trans-Euphrates.^(N)