Ezra 4:1-9 ▼

1 And they that afflicted Juda and Benjamin heard, that the children of the captivity were building a house to the Lord God of Israel.

2 And they drew near to Zorobabel, and to the heads of families, and said to them, We will build with you; for as ye do , we seek to serve our God, and we do sacrifice to him from the days of Asaradan king of Assur, who brought us hither.

3 then Zorobabel, and Jesus and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel said to them, It is not for us and you to build a house to our God, for we ourselves will build together to the Lord our God, as Cyrus the king of the Persians commanded us.

4 And the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Juda, and hindered them in building,

5 and continued hiring persons against them, plotting to frustrate their counsel, all the days of Cyrus king of the Persians, and until the reign of Darius king of the Persians.

6 And in the reign of Assuerus, even in the beginning of his reign, they wrote a letter against the inhabitants of Juda and Jerusalem.

7 And in the days of Arthasastha, Tabeel wrote peaceably to Mithradates and to the rest of his fellow-servants: the tribute-gatherer wrote to Arthasastha king of the Persians a writing in the Syrian tongue, and the same interpreted.

8 Reum the chancellor, and Sampsa the scribe wrote an epistle against Jerusalem to King Arthasastha, saying,

9 Thus has judged Reum the chancellor, and Sampsa the scribe, and the rest of our fellow-servants, the Dinaeans, the Apharsathachaeans, the Tarphalaeans, the Apharsaeans, the Archyaeans, the Babylonians, the Susanachaeans, Davaeans,