1. Now when the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the sons of the captivity built the temple unto the Lord God of Israel,
2. then they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the fathers and said unto them, Let us build with you, for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assur, who brought us up here.
3. But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build a house unto our God; but we alone will build unto the Lord God of Israel as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.
4. Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah and troubled them in building
5. and hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their counsel, 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 accusations against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
7. And in the days of Artaxerxes wrote Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their companions, unto Artaxerxes, king of Persia; and the writing of the letter was written in the Syrian tongue and interpreted in the Syrian tongue.
8. Rehum, the chancellor, and Shimshai, the scribe, wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes, the king, in this sort:
9. Then wrote Rehum, the chancellor, and Shimshai, the scribe, and the rest of their companions, the Dinaites, the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Susanchites, the Dehavites, and the Elamites,