Adversaries Oppose the Rebuilding
1 Now when
1the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the LORD, the God of Israel,
2
they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers' houses and said to them, "Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever
2since the days of
3Esarhaddon king of Assyria
4who brought us here."
3
But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses in Israel said to them,
5"You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the LORD, the God of Israel,
6as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us."
4
Then
7the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build
5
and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
6
And in the reign of
8Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.