1. And when the adversaries of Yehuḏah and Binyamin heard that the sons of the exile were building the Hĕḵal of יהוה Elohim of Yisra’ĕl,
2. they came to Zerubbaḇel and the heads of the fathers’ houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we seek your Elohim as you do. And we have slaughtered to Him since the days of Ěsarḥaddon sovereign of Ashshur, who brought us here.”
3. But Zerubbaḇel and Yĕshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Yisra’ĕl said to them, “It is not for you and for us to build a house for our Elohim, but we alone build to יהוה Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, as Sovereign Koresh the sovereign of Persia has commanded us.”
4. And it came to be that the people of the land were weakening the hands of the people of Yehuḏah and troubling them in their building,
5. and hiring counsellors against them to thwart their plans all the days of Koresh sovereign of Persia, even until the reign of Dareyawesh sovereign of Persia.