Enemies Hinder the Work

4 Now when ^(A)the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that ^(B)the people of the exile were building a temple to the Lord God of Israel, ² they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ households, and said to them, “Let us build with you, for like you, we 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 for the Lord God of Israel, ^(F)just as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.”

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