17. To king Artaxerxes our Lord, Your servants, Rathumus the storywriter, and Samellius the scribe, and the rest of their council, and the judges that are in Coelesyria and Phoenicia.
18. Be it now known to our lord the king, that the Jews that are come up from you to us, being come to Jerusalem, do build that rebellious and wicked city, and do repair the marketplaces and the walls of it, and do lay the foundation of a temple.
19. Now if this city be builded and the walls thereof be finished, they will not only refuse to give tribute, but will even stand up against kings.
20. And forasmuch as the things pertaining to the temple are now in hand, we think it meet not to neglect such a matter,
21. but to speak to our lord the king, to the intent that, if it be your pleasure, search may be made in the books of your fathers:
22. and you shall find in the chronicles what is written concerning these things, and shall understand that that city was rebellious, troubling both kings and cities:
23. and that the Jews were rebellious, and raised always wars therein of old time; for the which cause even this city was laid waste.
24. Wherefore now we do declare to you, O lord the king, that if this city be builded again, and the walls thereof set up anew, you shall from henceforth have no passage into Coelesyria and Phoenicia.
25. Then the king wrote back again to Rathumus the storywriter, and Beeltethmus, and Samellius the scribe, and to the rest that were in commission, and lived in Samaria and Syria and Phoenicia, after this manner:
26. I have read the epistle which you⌃ have sent to me: therefore I commanded to make search, and it has been found that that city of old time has made insurrection against kings;
27. and the men were given to rebellion and war therein: and that mighty kings and fierce were in Jerusalem, who reigned and exacted tribute in Coelesyria and Phoenicia.
28. Now therefore I have commanded to hinder those men from building the city, and heed to be taken that there be nothing done contrary to this order;
29. and that those wicked doings proceed no further to the annoyance of kings.
30. Then king Artaxerxes his letters being read, Rathumus, and Samellius the scribe, and the rest that were in commission with them, removing in haste to Jerusalem with horsemen and a multitude of people in battle array, began to hinder the builders; and the building of the temple in Jerusalem ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of the Persians.