Ezra 4:1

Ezra 4:1

Resistance to Rebuilding the Temple

1 Now when ^athe adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the descendants of the captivity were building the temple of the Lord God of Israel,

2 they 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 ^asince the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.”

3 But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Israel said to them, ^a“You may do nothing with us to build a¹ house for our God; but we alone will build to the Lord God of Israel, as ^bKing Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”

4 Then ^athe people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building,

5 and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of ^aDarius king of Persia.

Rebuilding of Jerusalem Opposed

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

7 In the days of ^aArtaxerxes also, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabel, and the rest of their companions wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia; and the letter was written in ^bAramaic script, and translated into the Aramaic language.

8 Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes in this fashion:

Commentaries:

Adam Clarke

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Now when the adversaries - These were the Samaritans, and the different nations with which the kings of Assyria had peopled Israel, when they had carried the original inhabitants away into captivity, see Ezra 4:9, Ezra 4:10.

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