Ezra 4
Legacy Standard Bible
Adversaries Discourage the Work
4 Then (A)the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that (B)the people of the exile were building a temple to Yahweh, the God of Israel, 2 so they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ households and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we, like you, seek your God; (C)and we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of (D)Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.” 3 But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers’ households of Israel said to them, “(E)You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build to Yahweh, the God of Israel, (F)as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.”
4 So (G)the people of the land [a]discouraged the people of Judah and dismayed 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](H)Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
7 And in the days of [c]Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his colleagues wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia; and the [d]text of the letter was written in Aramaic and translated (I)from Aramaic.
The Letter to King Artaxerxes
8 [e]Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes, as follows—
9 then wrote Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe and (J)the rest of their colleagues, the judges and (K)the lesser governors, the officials, the secretaries, the men of Erech, the Babylonians, the men of Susa, that is, the Elamites,
10 and the rest of the nations, which the great and honorable [f]Osnappar took away into exile and settled in the city of Samaria and in the rest of the region beyond the [g]River. (L)And now—
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 (M)the rebellious and evil city and (N)are completing 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 completed, (O)they will not give tribute, custom, or toll, and it will damage the revenue of the kings.
14 Now because we [h]are in the service of the palace, and it is not fitting for us to see the king’s [i]dishonor, therefore we have sent and made known to the king,
15 that a search be made in the record books of your fathers. And you will find in the record books and come to know 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 make known to the king that if that city is rebuilt and the walls completed, as a result you will have no portion in the province beyond the River.”
A Decree Makes the Men Stop Rebuilding
17 Then the king sent an edict 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 (P)plainly read before me.
19 So a decree has been [j]issued by me, and a search has been made and it has been found that that city has lifted itself up against the kings in past days, that rebellion and revolt have been perpetrated in it,
20 (Q)that strong kings have been over Jerusalem, even rulers in all the provinces (R)beyond the River, and that (S)tribute, custom, and toll were given to them.
21 Now issue a decree to make those men stop, that this city may not be rebuilt until a decree is issued by me.
22 And beware of being negligent in doing this matter; why should harm increase to damage 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 and military.
24 Then the work on the house of God in Jerusalem stopped, and it was stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Footnotes
以斯拉记 4
Chinese Contemporary Bible (Simplified)
建殿工作受阻
4 犹大和便雅悯的敌人听说流亡者回来要为以色列的上帝耶和华建殿， 2 就去见所罗巴伯和以色列的族长，对他们说：“请让我们与你们一同建造，因为我们像你们一样也寻求你们的上帝。自从亚述王以撒哈顿带我们到这里以后，我们就一直献祭给上帝。” 3 所罗巴伯、耶书亚和以色列其余的族长回答说：“你们不能参与建殿。遵照波斯王塞鲁士的吩咐，我们要自己为以色列的上帝耶和华建殿。”
4 于是，当地人阻挠犹大人，使他们不敢建殿， 5 从波斯王塞鲁士统治年间，一直到波斯王大流士统治期间，当地人收买谋士，破坏他们的计划。
阻扰重建耶路撒冷
6 亚哈随鲁统治初期，他们写信控告犹大和耶路撒冷的居民。
7 波斯王亚达薛西统治年间，比施兰、米特利达、他别及其同党上奏亚达薛西。奏章是用亚兰文写的，经过翻译后呈上。 8 利宏省长和伸帅书记也写了奏本给亚达薛西王，控告耶路撒冷人，内容如下： 9 “利宏省长、伸帅书记和我们的同僚底拿人、亚法萨提迦人、他毗拉人、亚法撒人、亚基卫人、巴比伦人、书珊迦人、底亥人、以拦人， 10 以及伟大尊贵的亚斯那巴迁来并安置在撒玛利亚各城与幼发拉底河西一带的人民， 11 上奏亚达薛西王，
“‘幼发拉底河西的臣民奏告亚达薛西王， 12 王该知道，从王那里到我们这里来的犹太人已经去了耶路撒冷，如今正在重建这座叛逆、罪恶之城，正在重建地基，修筑城墙。 13 王该知道，如果这城建好，城墙完工，他们将不再进贡、交赋、纳税，王的税收必受亏损。 14 我们既食王禄，就不能坐视王遭受损失，因此上奏于王。 15 请王查看先王的记录，必从中获悉这城是叛逆之城，危害列王和各省。自古以来，城中叛乱不断，因此才被毁灭。 16 我们愿王知道，这城一旦建好，城墙完工，幼发拉底河西之地就不再为王所有了。’”
17 王回复利宏省长、伸帅书记及其住在撒玛利亚与幼发拉底河西一带的同僚，说：“愿你们平安！ 18 你们呈上的奏章，经过翻译已奏报给我。 19 我已命人查考，发现这城自古以来屡屡背叛列王，是悖逆和叛乱之地。 20 强大的君王曾经统管耶路撒冷和幼发拉底河西全境，并向人们征收贡物和赋税。 21 现在你们要下令让这些人停止建造这城，等候我的谕旨。 22 要认真办理这事，不可迟延，何必容事情恶化，使王受亏损呢？”
23 利宏、伸帅书记及其同僚接到谕旨后，急忙赶往耶路撒冷，用武力强迫犹太人停工。
恢复建殿工作
24 于是，耶路撒冷上帝殿的重建工程停止了，一直停到波斯王大流士第二年。
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