Ezra 4:2-11

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; ¹and we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of ²Esarhaddon 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, "³You 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, ⁴as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us."

4 Then ⁵the 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 ⁶Ahasuerus, 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 ⁷from 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 ⁸the rest of their colleagues, the judges and ⁹the 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. ¹⁰Now

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

Ezra 4:2-11 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.

Cross References

• 1. 2 Kings 17:32
• 2. 2 Kings 19:37
• 3. Nehemiah 2:20
• 4. Ezra 1:1, 2
• 5. Ezra 3:3
• 6. Esther 1:1; Daniel 9:1
• 7. 2 Kings 18:26; Daniel 2:4
• 8. 2 Kings 17:24
• 9. Ezra 5:6; Ezra 6:6
• 10. Ezra 4:11, 17; Ezra 7:12

Footnotes

• [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