Ezra 4:3-13

3 But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers' households of Israel said to them, "¹You 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, ²as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us."

4 Then ³the people of the land discouraged * 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 ⁴Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

7 And in the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and the rest of his colleagues wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia; and the text of the letter was written in Aramaic and translated ⁵from Aramaic.

The Letter to King Artaxerxes

8 Rehum 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 ⁶the rest of their colleagues, the judges and ⁷the 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 Osnappar deported and settled in the city of Samaria, and in the rest of the region beyond the River. ⁸Now

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 now

12 let it be known to the king that the Jews who came up from you have come to us at Jerusalem; they are rebuilding ⁹the rebellious and evil city and ¹⁰are finishing the walls and repairing the foundations.

13 "Now let it be known to the king, that if that city is rebuilt and the walls are finished, ¹¹they will not pay tribute, custom or toll, and it will damage the revenue of the kings.

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Ezra 4:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZRA 4

The contents of this chapter are the offer the Samaritans made to the Jews, to assist them in building the temple, which having refused, they gave them all the trouble they could, Ezr 4:1-6 and a letter of theirs to Artaxerxes, king of Persia, full of accusations of them, Ezr 4:7-16 and the answer of Artaxerxes to it, giving orders to command the Jews to cease building the temple, Ezr 4:17-22 which orders were accordingly executed, and the work ceased till the second year of Darius, Ezr 4:23,24.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 11

1. Nehemiah 2:20
2. Ezra 1:1, 2
3. Ezra 3:3
4. Esther 1:1; Daniel 9:1
5. 2 Kings 18:26; Daniel 2:4
6. 2 Kings 17:24
7. Ezra 5:6; Ezra 6:6
8. Ezra 4:11, 17; Ezra 7:12
9. 2 Chronicles 36:13
10. Ezra 5:3, 9
11. Ezra 4:20; Ezra 7:24

Footnotes 7

[a]. Lit "weakened the hands of"
[b]. Or "Xerxes;" Heb "Ahash-verosh"
[c]. Heb "Artah-shashta"
[d]. Lit "writing"
[e]. Ch 4:8-6:18 is in Aram
[f]. I.e. probably Ashurbanipal
[g]. I.e. Euphrates River, and so throughout the ch