Ezra 4:8

8 Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote another letter against [the people of] Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes.

Ezra 4:8 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 4:8

Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, wrote a letter
against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king in this sort.
] This means the same letter as before; which, according to Jarchi, was sent in the name of Mithredath Tabeel and his company, was endited by Rehum, master of words or sense, and written by Shimshai the scribe, whom he makes to be a son of Haman ^F9; but it was written rather in all their names.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F9 So Midrash Esther, fol. 85. 3.

Ezra 4:8 In-Context

6 When Xerxes began to rule, the enemies of Judah and Jerusalem wrote a letter in which they made an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

7 Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their group wrote to him when Artaxerxes was king of Persia. The letter was written with the Aramaic script and translated into the Aramaic language.

8 Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote another letter against [the people of] Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes.

9 At that time, Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe were with the others of their group--the people from Denya, Partakka, Tarpel, Persia, Erech, Babylon, Susa, (that is, those of Elam),

10 and the rest of the people whom the great and noble Assurbanipal deported. (Assurbanipal settled them in the cities of Samaria and the rest of the lands west of the Euphrates River.)