1. When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel,
2. they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of ancestral houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we seek your God just as you do, and we have sacrificed to him since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought us here.”
3. But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of ancestral houses of Israel answered them, “It is not your responsibility to build with us a house for our God, but we alone must build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as Cyrus king of Persia has commanded us.”
4. Thereupon the local inhabitants discouraged the people of Judah and frightened them off from building.
5. They also bribed counselors to work against them and to frustrate their plans during all the years of Cyrus, king of Persia, and even into the reign of Darius, king of Persia.
6. In the reign of Ahasuerus, at the beginning of his reign, they prepared a written accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
7. Again, in the time of Artaxerxes, Tabeel and the rest of his fellow officials, in concert with Mithredath, wrote to Artaxerxes, king of Persia. The document was written in Aramaic and was accompanied by a translation.
8. Then Rehum, the governor, and Shimshai, the scribe, wrote the following letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes:
9. “Rehum, the governor, Shimshai, the scribe, and their fellow officials, judges, legates, and agents from among the Persians, Urukians, Babylonians, Susians (that is, Elamites),
10. and the other peoples whom the great and illustrious Osnappar transported and settled in the city of Samaria and elsewhere in the province West-of-Euphrates, as follows….”
11. This is a copy of the letter that they sent to him:“To King Artaxerxes, your servants, the men of West-of-Euphrates, as follows: