Ezra 4:1-11 (New American Standard)
View In My BibleAdversaries Hinder the Work
1 Now when 1the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that 2the people of the exile were building a temple to the LORD God of Israel, 2 they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers' households, and said to them, "Let us build with you, for we, like you, seek your God ; 3and we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of 4Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here." 3 But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers' households of Israel said to them, "5You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God ; but we ourselves will together build to the LORD God of Israel, 6as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us." 4 Then 7the people of the land adiscouraged the people of Judah, and frightened them from building, 5 and hired counselors against them to frustrate their counsel all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. 6 Now in the reign of b8Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. 7 And in the days of cArtaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and the rest of his colleagues wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia ; and the dtext of the letter was written in Aramaic and translated 9from Aramaic.The Letter to King Artaxerxes
8 eRehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes, as follows - 9 then wrote Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe and 10the rest of their colleagues, the judges and 11the lesser governors, the officials, the secretaries, the men of Erech, the Babylonians, the men of Susa, that is, the Elamites, 10 and the rest of the nations which the great and honorable fOsnappar deported and settled in the city of Samaria, and in the rest of the region beyond the gRiver. 12Now 11 this is the copy of the letter which they sent to him: "T o King Artaxerxes : Your servants, the men in the region beyond the River, and nowNew American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, California. All rights reserved. (New American Standard Version - Holy Bible)
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