Ezra 4:1-9 ▼

1 But the aduersaries of Iuda and Beniamin, heard that the children of the captiuitie builded the temple vnto the Lorde God of Israel:

2 And they came to Zorobabel and to the principall fathers, and saide vnto them: We wyll builde with you, for we seeke the Lorde your God, as ye do, and we haue done sacrifice vnto him since the time of Asor Hadon the king of Assur which brought vs vp hither.

3 And Zorobabel, and Iesua, and the other auncient fathers of Israel, sayde vnto them: It can not be, that you and we together shoulde builde the house vnto our God: for we our selues wyll builde alone vnto the Lorde our God of Israel, as Cyrus the king of Persia hath commaunded vs.

4 And it came to passe, that the folke of the lande discouraged the people of Iuda, & troubled them as they were building:

5 And hyred counsellers against them, to hinder their deuice as long as Cyrus the king of Persia liued, vntil the raigne of Darius king of Persia.

6 And in the raigne of Ahasuerus, euen at the beginning of his raigne, wrote they vnto him a complaynt against the inhabiters of Iuda and Hierusalem.

7 And in the dayes of Artaxerxes, wrote Mithridach, Tabel, and the other of his counsell, vnto Artaxerxes the king of Persia with faire wordes: And the writing of the letter was in the Syrians speache, and interpreted in the language of the Syrians:

8 Rehum the recorder, and Samsai the scribe wrote a letter from Hierusalem to Artaxerxes the king, as it foloweth.

9 Then Rehum the recorder, and Samsai the scribe, and other of their company, they of Dina, of Apharsath, of Tharpelai, of Persia, of Arache, of Babylon, of Susan, of Deha, of Elan,