Ezra 4:1-5

Resistance to Rebuilding the House of God

1 Now the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the {returned exiles} [were] building a temple for Yahweh the God of Israel.

2 And they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of the {families}, and they said to them, "Let us build with you. Like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing [to him] from the days of Esarhaddon the king of Assyria who brought us up here.

3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of the {families} of Israel said to them, "[It is] not for you but for us to build a house for our God. For we ourselves alone will build [it] for Yahweh the God of Israel, just as Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us."

4 Then the people of the land discouraged {the people of Judah} and made them afraid to build

5 and bribed officials against them to frustrate their plan for all the days of Cyrus king of Persia until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Ezra 4:1-5 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "the sons of the exile"
• [b]. Literally "fathers"
• [c]. Literally "fathers"
• [d]. Literally "the hands of the people of Judah"