Ezra 4

¹ When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building the Temple of Yahweh,God of Israel,

² they came to Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the heads of families and said, 'Let us help you build, for weresort to your God as you do and we have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria,who brought us here.'

³ Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the other heads of Israelite families replied, 'It is out of the question that youshould join us in building a Temple for our God. We shal build for Yahweh, God of Israel, on our own, as KingCyrus king of Persia has commanded us.'

⁴ The people of the country then set about demoralising the people of Judah and deterring them frombuilding;

⁵ they also bribed counsellors against them to frustrate their purpose throughout the lifetime of Cyrus kingof Persia right on into the reign of Darius king of Persia.

⁶ In the reign of Xerxes, at the beginning of his reign, they drew up an accusation against the inhabitantsof Judah and Jerusalem.

⁷ In the days of Artaxerxes, Mithredath, Tabeel and their other associates wrote to Artaxerxes king ofPersia against Jerusalem; the text of the letter was written in Aramaic writing and dialect.

⁸ Then Rehum the governor and Shimshai the secretary wrote a letter to King Artaxerxes, denouncingJerusalem as fol ows:

⁹ 'From Rehum the governor and Shimshai the secretary and their other associates, the judges, thelegates, the Persian officials, the people of Uruk, Babylon and Susa -- that is, the Elamites-

¹⁰ and the other peoples whom the great and il ustrious Ashurbanipal deported and settled in the towns ofSamaria and in the rest of Transeuphrates.'

¹¹ This is the text of the letter which they sent him: 'To King Artaxerxes, from your servants the people ofTranseuphrates:

¹² 'May the king now please be informed that the Jews, who have come up from you to us, have arrivedin Jerusalem and are rebuilding the rebel ious and evil city; they have begun rebuilding the wal s and are layingthe foundations;

¹³ and now the king should be informed that once this city is rebuilt and the wal s are restored, they wilrefuse to pay tribute, tax or toll, thus the king will incur a loss;

¹⁴ and now, because we eat the palace salt, it is not proper for us to see this affront offered to the king;we therefore send this information to the king

¹⁵ so that a search may be made in the archives of your ancestors: in which archives you will find andlearn that this city is a rebellious city, the bane of kings and provinces, and that sedition has been stirred upthere from ancient times; that is why this city was destroyed.

¹⁶ We inform the king that if this city is rebuilt and its wal s are restored, you wil soon have no territoriesleft in Transeuphrates.'

¹⁷ The king sent this reply: 'To Rehum the governor, to Shimshai the secretary, and to their otherassociates resident in Samaria and elsewhere in Transeuphrates: Greetings!

¹⁸ 'And now, the document which you sent us has been accurately translated for me,

¹⁹ and by my orders search has been made, and it has been found that this city has rebel ed against thekings in the past and that revolt and sedition have been contrived in it;

²⁰ and that powerful kings have reigned in Jerusalem, governing the whole of Transeuphrates andexacting tribute, tax and tol ;

²¹ now give orders for these men to cease work; this city is not to be rebuilt until I give the order.

²² Beware of acting negligently in this matter. Why should the harm grow, to endanger the king?'

²³ As soon as the text of King Artaxerxes' document had been read to Rehum the governor, Shimshai thesecretary and their associates, they hurried to the Jews in Jerusalem and stopped their work by force of arms.

²⁴ Work on the Temple of God in Jerusalem then ceased, and was discontinued until the second year ofthe reign of Darius King of Persia.