1
Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity were building the temple to the LORD God of Israel;
2
Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said to them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye [do]; and we do sacrifice to him since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assur, who brought us up hither.
3
But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said to them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build a house to our God; but we ourselves together will build to the LORD God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us.
4
Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building,
5
And hired counselors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
6
And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote [to him] an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
7
And in the days of Artaxerxes wrote Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their companions to Artaxerxes king of Persia, and the writing of the letter [was] written in the Syrian language, and interpreted in the Syrian language.
8
Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king in this sort:
9
Then [wrote] Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their companions; the Dianites, the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Susanchites, the Dehavites, [and] the Elamites,