CHAPTER 4

¹And the foes of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple to the LORD God of Israel. ²And they approached Zerubbabel and the patriarchal chiefs and said to them, “Let us build with you, for like you we would seek out your God, and to Him we have been sacrificing from the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.” ³And Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the patriarchal chiefs with him, said to them, “It is not for you and for us to build a house for our God, for we ourselves shall build for the LORD God of Israel as Cyrus king of Persia has charged us.” ⁴And the people of the land were slackening the hands of the people of Judah and frightening them from building ⁵and hiring against them councillors to thwart their counsel all the days of Cyrus king of Persia and through to the reign of Darius king of Persia. ⁶And in the reign of Ahasuerus, at the beginning of his reign, they wrote a denunciation against the dwellers of Judah and Jerusalem. ⁷And in the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their associates wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia, and the epistle was written in Aramaic and read out in Aramaic. ⁸Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter about Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows: ⁹Then Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe and the rest of their associates, the judges and the inspectors, the advisors, the administrators, the Archivites, the Babylonians, the Shushbanites who were Elamites, ¹⁰and the rest of the peoples whom the great and glorious Asnappar had exiled and settled in the city of Samaria and in the rest of the region Beyond the River. And now, ¹¹this is the copy of the epistle that they sent to him: “To King Artaxerxes, your servants, men from Beyond the River. ¹²And now let it be known to the king that the Jews who came up from before you to us in Jerusalem, the rebellious and offending city, they are rebuilding, and the walls they are finishing and its foundations they are reinforcing. ¹³Now let it be known to the king that if this city is rebuilt and the walls finished, the levy, the tribute, and the land tax they will not pay, and in the end the kingdom will be harmed. ¹⁴Now, since we have tasted the salt of the palace, and it is not proper for us to see the king’s shame, for this we have sent out and made it known to the king, ¹⁵that it be searched in the chronicles of your fathers, and you will find in the chronicles that this city is a rebellious city and is harmful to kings and provinces, and has provoked war within it from days of yore. Therefore was this city destroyed. ¹⁶We inform the king that if this city is rebuilt and the walls finished, because of this you will have no share in the region Beyond the River.” ¹⁷The king sent back this word to Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe and the rest of their associates who were dwelling in Samaria and in the rest of the region Beyond the River: “Greetings. And now ¹⁸the missive that you sent me has been read out and expounded before me. ¹⁹And a decree was put forth by me, and they searched and found that this city from days of yore has risen against kings and rebelled, and war has been provoked in it. ²⁰And powerful kings were over Jerusalem and dominated the entire region Beyond the River, and the levy, the tribute, and the land tax were paid to them. ²¹Now, put out a decree to stop these men from their work, and this city shall not be rebuilt until a decree is put forth by me. ²²And be careful to make no mistake about this lest there be great damage that would do harm to kings.” ²³Then when the copy of this letter of King Artaxerxes was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their associates, they went in great haste to Jerusalem to the Jews and stopped them by main force. ²⁴Then was the work on the house of God in Jerusalem stopped, and it remained stopped until the second year of Darius king of Persia.