Resistance to Rebuilding the Temple

4 Now when ^(A)the ^[a]adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the descendants of the captivity were building the temple of the Lord God of Israel, ² they came to Zerubbabel and the heads of the fathers’ houses, and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do; and we have sacrificed to Him ^(B)since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.” ³ But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Israel said to them, ^(C)“You may do nothing with us to build a ^[b]house for our God; but we alone will build to the Lord God of Israel, as ^(D)King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.” ⁴ Then ^(E)the people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building, ⁵ and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of ^(F)Darius king of Persia.

⁶ And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. ⁷ After serious thought, I rebuked the nobles and rulers, and said to them, ^(A)“Each of you is ^[a]exacting usury from his brother.” So I ^[b]called a great assembly against them. ⁸ And I said to them, “According to our ability we have ^(B)redeemed our Jewish brethren who were sold to the nations. Now indeed, will you even sell your brethren? Or should they be sold to us?”

Then they were silenced and found nothing to say. ⁹ Then I said, “What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk ^(C)in the fear of our God ^(D)because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies?

²⁴ Thus the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem ceased, and it was discontinued until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

¹⁰ Therefore ^(A)the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit.

¹¹ For I ^(A)called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on ^(B)all the labor of your hands.”

^17 (A)I struck you with blight and mildew and hail ^(B)in all the labors of your hands; ^(C)yet you did not turn to Me,’ says the Lord. ¹⁸ ‘Consider now from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from ^(D)the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid—consider it: ^19 (E)Is the seed still in the barn? As yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yielded fruit. But from this day I will ^(F)bless you.’ ”

Nehemiah Deals with Oppression

5 And there was a great ^(A)outcry of the people and their wives against their ^(B)Jewish brethren. ² For there were those who said, “We, our sons, and our daughters are many; therefore let us get grain, that we may eat and live.”

³ There were also some who said, “We have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.”