Ezra 4

¹ But when the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a sanctuary for Yahweh, the God of Israel,

² they came to Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the heads of families and said, ‘We would like to build with you, for we seek your God as you do and we have sacrificed 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 not right that you should join us in building a Temple for our God; we alone may build for Yahweh, the God of Israel, as we were ordered by Cyrus king of Persia’.

⁴ Then the people of the country[*a] set out to dishearten and frighten the people of Judah from building any further;

⁵ they lured counsellors against them, to defeat their purpose. This lasted throughout the reign of Cyrus king of Persia and until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

⁶ At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes[*b] they lodged a complaint against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

⁷ In the time of Artaxerxes[*c], Mithredath, Tabeel and the rest of their colleagues denounced Jerusalem in writing to Artaxerxes king of Persia. The text of the document was in the Aramaic script and the Aramaic language.

⁸ Then Rehum the governor and Shimshai the secretary wrote the following letter denouncing Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes –

⁹ Rehum the governor[*d] and Shimshai the secretary and the rest of their colleagues, the judges and legates, Persian officials, the people of Uruk, Babylon and Susa – that is, the Elamites –

¹⁰ and the other peoples whom Assurbanipal the Great deported and settled in the towns of Samaria and in the rest of Transeuphrates[*e].

¹¹ This is a copy of the letter they sent: ‘To King Artaxerxes, from your servants, the people of Transeuphrates: Whereas

¹² the king should be informed that the Jews, who have come up from your country to Jerusalem, are now rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city; they are working to restore the walls, and the foundations are already laid,

¹³ and whereas the king should be informed that if this city is rebuilt and the walls are restored, they will refuse to pay tribute, customs or tolls, and that in short this city will damage the authority of the kings,

¹⁴ and whereas, because we eat the salt of the palace, it does not seem proper to 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 it proved that this city is a rebellious city, the bane of the kings and the provinces, and that sedition has been stirred up there from ancient times; which is why this city was destroyed.

¹⁶ We inform the king that if this city is rebuilt and its walls are restored, you will soon have no territories left in Transeuphrates.’

¹⁷ The king sent this reply: ‘To Rehum the governor, to Shimshai the secretary, and to the rest of their colleagues resident in Samaria and elsewhere in Transeuphrates, peace! Whereas

¹⁸ the document you sent to me has been translated and read before me,

¹⁹ and by my orders search has been made, and it has been found that from ancient times this city has risen against kings and that rebellion and sedition have been contrived in it;

²⁰ and that powerful kings have reigned in Jerusalem, who dominated all Transeuphrates, exacting tribute, customs and tolls,

²¹ you must now order the work of these men to cease immediately: this city is not to be rebuilt until I give further orders.

²² Beware of negligence in this matter lest further harm be done to the king’s interests.’

²³ As soon as the copy of King Artaxerxes’ document had been read before Rehum the governor, Shimshai the secretary and their colleagues, they hurried to the Jews in Jerusalem and stopped their work by force of arms.

²⁴ Thus the work on the Temple of God in Jerusalem was brought to a standstill; it remained interrupted until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.