Ezra 4:5
◄  Ezra 4:5  ►
New International Version (©2011)
They 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.

New Living Translation (©2007)
They bribed agents to work against them and to frustrate their plans. This went on during the entire reign of King Cyrus of Persia and lasted until King Darius of Persia took the throne.

English Standard Version (©2001)
and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
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.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And hired counsellers against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
They also bribed officials to act against them to frustrate their plans throughout the reign of King Cyrus of Persia and until the reign of King Darius of Persia.

International Standard Version (©2012)
by bribing their consultants in order to frustrate their plans throughout the reign of Cyrus, king of Persia until Darius became king.

NET Bible (©2006)
They were hiring advisers to oppose them, so as to frustrate their plans, throughout the time of King Cyrus of Persia until the reign of King Darius of Persia.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
They bribed officials to keep the people of Judah from carrying out their plans throughout the reign of King Cyrus of Persia until the reign of King Darius of Persia.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And hired counselors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

American King James Version
And hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

American Standard Version
and hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And they hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their design all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of the Persians.

Darby Bible Translation
and they hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

English Revised Version
and hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Webster's Bible Translation
And hired counselors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

World English Bible
and hired counselors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Young's Literal Translation
and are hiring against them counsellors to make void their counsel all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even till the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:1-5 Every attempt to revive true religion will stir up the opposition of Satan, and of those in whom he works. The adversaries were the Samaritans, who had been planted in the land of Israel, 2Ki 17. It was plain that they did not mean to unite in the worship of the Lord, according to his word. Let those who discourage a good work, and weaken them that are employed in it, see whose pattern they follow.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - And hired counsellors against them. It is always possible at an Oriental court to bribe some of the royal favourites, and induce them to use their influence with the monarch for the furtherance, or hindrance, of any work that is being proceeded with in any part of the country. The Samaritans now had recourse to this system, and employed it with great success for a considerable period. All the days of Cyrus. i.e. "all the remaining days," from B.C. 537 to B.C. 529, when Cyrus died, and was succeeded by his son Cambyses. Even until the reign of Darius. It is implied that the reign of Darius did not immediately follow on that of Cyrus. Profane history tells us of two intermediate kings, via, Cambyses, son of Cyrus, who reigned from B.C. 529 to B.C. 522, and Smerdis, or Bardes, a usurper, who occupied the throne for about ten months in the years B.C. 522, 521. Darius became king in this last-named year, but seems to have counted his reign from the date of the decease of Cambyses.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose,.... Either to advise and persuade the king of Persia's officers in those parts not to supply them with money, or to influence the great men at his court to get the edict revoked: and this they did

all the days of Cyrus king of Persia; who, though the hearty friend and patron of the Jews, yet being engaged in wars abroad with the Lydians and Scythians, and leaving his son as viceroy in his absence, who was no friend unto them, the work went on but slowly, attended with interruptions and discouragements:

even until the reign of Darius king of Persia; who was Darius Hystaspis, between whom and Cyrus were Cambyses the son of Cyrus, and Smerdis the impostor, who pretended to be Smerdis, the brother of Cambyses; a space of about fifteen years.

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Adversaries Hinder the Work
…3But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said to them, You have nothing to do with us to build an house to our God; but we ourselves together will build to the LORD God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us. 4Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, 5And hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

2 Chronicles 22:4 He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, as the house of Ahab had done, for after his father's death they became his advisers, to his undoing.
Ezra 4:4 Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building.
Ezra 4:6 At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, they lodged an accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem.