Ezra 4:2–10

²Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him ^bsince the days of Esar-haddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither. ^3*But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, ^cYe have nothing to do with us ^dto build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as ^eking Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us. ^4*Then ^fthe people of the land ^gweakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, ⁵And hired counsellers against them, to ^hfrustrate 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 ^†Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, wrote they unto him an ⁱaccusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. ⁷And in the days of Artaxerxes wrote ^||Bishlam, ^jMithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their ^†companions, unto Artaxerxes king of Persia; and the writing of ^kthe letter was written ^lin the Syrian tongue, and interpreted in the Syrian tongue.

^8*Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the ^||scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king in this sort: ⁹Then wrote Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their ^†companions; ^mthe Dinaites, the ⁿApharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the ⁿApharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the ^oSusanchites, the Dehavites, and the ^pElamites, ¹⁰And the rest of the nations whom the great and noble ^qAsnappar brought over, and set in the cities of ^rSamaria, and the rest that are on this side the river, ^sand ^†at such a time.