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Ezra 4:2
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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: 
9 From Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their companions—representatives of athe Dinaites, the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the people of Persia and Erech and Babylon and Shushan, the Dehavites, the Elamites,  
10 aand the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Osnapper took captive and settled in the cities of Samaria and the remainder beyond1 the River —band so forth.  
11 (This is a copy of the letter that they sent him)
To King Artaxerxes from your servants, the men of the region beyond the River,1 and so forth: 
12 Let it be known to the king that the Jews who came up from you have come to us at Jerusalem, and are building the arebellious and evil city, and are finishing its bwalls and repairing the foundations.  
Book Notes:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Book Notes

Ezra

EZRA was, along with Nehemiah, reckoned one book by the ancient Jews, who called them the First and Second Books of Ezra, and they are still designated by Roman Catholic writers the First and Second Books of Esdras. This book naturally divides itself into two parts or sections, the one contained in the first six chapters, and which relates the circumstances connected with the return of the first detachment of Babylonish exiles under Zerubbabel with the consequent rebuilding of the temple and the re-establishment of the divine service. The other part, embraced in the four concluding chapters, narrates the journey of a second caravan of returning captives under the conduct of Ezra himself, who was invested with powers to restore, in all its splendor, the entire system of the Jewish ritual. The general opinion of the Church in every succeeding age has been that Ezra was the author of this book. The chief objection is founded on Ezra 5:4, where the words, "Then said we unto them after this manner, What are the names of the men that make this building?" have occasioned a surmise that the first portion of the book was not written by Ezra, who did not go to Jerusalem for many years after. But a little attention will show the futility of this objection, as the words in question did not refer to the writer, but were used by Tatnai and his associates [Ezra 5:3]. The style and unity of object in the book clearly prove it to have been the production of but one author. The canonical authority of this book is well established; but another under the name of Ezra is rejected as apocryphal.

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