Ezra 4:1-9 ▼

1 And the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the sons of the captivity were building the temple of YHWH, God of Israel,

2 and they came to Zerubbabel and the heads of the fathers and said to them, “Let us build with you?, for like you?, we seek your? God, and to Him we have sacrificed since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assyria, who brought us up us here.”

3 And Zerubbabel said to them, and Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of the fathers of Israel, “Nothing is to you? and to us to build a house for our God, but we alone will build to YHWH, God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”

4 And it came to pass, the people of the land tried to make feeble the hands of the people of Judah, and they troubled them in building

5 and hired against them counselors to frustrate their counsel all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

6 And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against those dwelling in Judah and Jerusalem.

7 And in the days of Artaxerxes, wrote Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabel, and the rest of his companions, to Artaxerxes king of Persia, and the letter was written in Aramaic and translated in Aramaic.

8 Rehum the owner of the command and Shimshai the scribe wrote one letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes, thus:

9 Then Rehum the owner of the command, and Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their companions, Dinaites, and Apharsathchites, Tarpelites, Apharsites, Archevites, Babylonians, Susanchites who are Elamite,