Hostile Plots Thwarted

4 ^[a]Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he mocked the Jews.^(A)

¹⁰ When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official^[a] heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the Israelites.^(A)

³⁶ Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment.^(A)

¹⁹ But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official^[a] and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”^(A)

The Apostles Are Persecuted

¹⁷ Then the high priest took action; he and all who were with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), being filled with jealousy,

²⁹ and after twisting some thorns into a crown they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”^(A)

Resistance to Rebuilding the Temple

4 When the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel,^{(A) 2} they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of families and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of King Esar-haddon of Assyria, who brought us here.”^{(B) 3} But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of families in Israel said to them, “You shall have no part with us in building a house for our God, but we alone will build for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus of Persia has commanded us.”^(C)

⁴ Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build,^{(D) 5} and they bribed officials to frustrate their plan throughout the reign of King Cyrus of Persia and until the reign of King Darius of Persia.