Ezra 4:1-9 ▼

1 NOW when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people of the captivity were building the temple to the LORD God of Israel,

2 Then they came to Zerubbabel and to the chiefs of the fathers and said to them, Let us also build with you; for we seek your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him since the days of Esarhaddom king of Assyria, who brought us up here.

3 But Zerubbabel and Joshua and the rest of the chiefs of the fathers of Israel said to them, You have nothing to do with us to build a house to our God; for we ourselves together will build a house to the LORD God of Israel, as Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.

4 Then the Gentiles of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and terrified them that they should not build,

5 And hired objectors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

6 And in the reign of King Akhshirash, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

7 And in the days of Artakhshisht, wrote Bishlam, Mahderat, Tabaiel, and the rest of their companions to Artakhshisht king of Persia; and the letter was written in Aramaic and interpreted in Aramaic.

8 Arkhom the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artakhshisht the king according to custom;

9 Then wrote Arkhom the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe and the rest of their companions, the Dinaites, the Aspherites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Susanchites, the Dehavites, and the Elamites,