1. And the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity were building the temple to Jehovah the God of Israel;
2. and they came to Zerubbabel and to the chief fathers, and said to them, We would build with you; for we seek your God as ye; and we have sacrificed to him since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assyria, who brought us up hither.
3. But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the chief fathers of Israel said to them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build a house to our God but we alone will build to Jehovah the God of Israel, as king Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.
4. And the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building;
5. and they hired counsellors 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 an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
7. And in the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his companions, wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia; and the writing of the letter was written in Aramaic, and interpreted in Aramaic.
8. Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king after this sort:
9. Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their companions, the Dinaites, and the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Shushanchites, the Dehaites, the Elamites,