Ezra 4:2

4:2 they came to Zerubbabel and the leaders2 and said to them, “Let us help you build,3 for like you we seek your God and we have been sacrificing to him4 from the time5 of King Esarhaddon6 of Assyria, who brought us here.”7

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2	tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.” So also in v. 3.
3	tn Heb “Let us build with you.”
4	tc The translation reads with the Qere, a Qumran ms, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Arabic version וְלוֹ (vélo, “and him”) rather than the Kethib of the MT, וְלֹא (vélo’, “and not”).
5	tn Heb “days.”
6	sn Esarhaddon was king of Assyria ca. 681–669 b.c.
7	sn The Assyrian policy had been to resettle Samaria with peoples from other areas (cf. 2 Kgs 17:24–34). These immigrants acknowledged Yahweh as well as other deities in some cases. The Jews who returned from the Exile regarded them with suspicion and were not hospitable to their offer of help in rebuilding the temple.