Ezra 4:2–10

²they came to Zerubbabel and the heads of the fathers’ houses, and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do; and we have sacrificed to Him ^bsince the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.” ³But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Israel said to them, ^c“You may do nothing with us to build a ²house for our God; but we alone will build to the Lord God of Israel, as ^dKing Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.” ⁴Then ^ethe people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building, ⁵and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of ^fDarius king of Persia.

Rebuilding of Jerusalem Opposed

⁶In the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

⁷In the days of ^gArtaxerxes also, ³Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabel, and the rest of their companions wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia; and the letter was written in ^hAramaic script, and translated into the Aramaic language. ⁸⁴Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes in this fashion:

⁹⁵From Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their companions—representatives of ⁱthe Dinaites, the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the people of Persia and Erech and Babylon and ⁶Shushan, the Dehavites, the Elamites, ^10jand the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Osnapper took captive and settled in the cities of Samaria and the remainder beyond ⁷the River—^kand ⁸so forth.