13. Your Majesty, if this city is rebuilt and its walls are completed, the people will stop paying taxes, and your royal revenues will decrease.
14. Now, because we are under obligation to Your Majesty, we do not want to see this happen, and so we suggest
15. that you order a search to be made in the records your ancestors kept. If you do, you will discover that this city has always been rebellious and that from ancient times it has given trouble to kings and to rulers of provinces. Its people have always been hard to govern. This is why the city was destroyed.
16. We therefore are convinced that if this city is rebuilt and its walls are completed, Your Majesty will no longer be able to control the province of West Euphrates.”
17. The emperor sent this answer:“To Rehum, the governor, to Shimshai, secretary of the province, and to their associates who live in Samaria and in the rest of West Euphrates, greetings.
18. “The letter which you sent has been translated and read to me.
19. I gave orders for an investigation to be made, and it has indeed been found that from ancient times Jerusalem has revolted against royal authority and that it has been full of rebels and troublemakers.
20. Powerful kings have reigned there and have ruled over the entire province of West Euphrates, collecting taxes and revenue.
21. Therefore you are to issue orders that those men are to stop rebuilding the city until I give further commands.
22. Do this at once, so that no more harm may be done to my interests.”
23. As soon as this letter from Artaxerxes was read to Rehum, Shimshai, and their associates, they hurried to Jerusalem and forced the Jews to stop rebuilding the city.
24. Work on the Temple had been stopped and had remained at a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius, emperor of Persia.