1. Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children 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' houses, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as you do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.
3. But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of the fathers' houses of Israel, said unto them, You have nothing to do with us to build a house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the LORD God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia has 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 counselors against them, to frustrate their purpose, 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 unto him an accusation 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 Aramaic, and set forth in the Aramaic language.
8. Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king in this fashion:
9. Then wrote Rehum the commander, and Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their companions; the judges, the governors , the officials, the Persians, the men of Erech, the Babylonians, the men of Susa, and the Elamites,
10. And the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Osnappar brought over, and settled in the cities of Samaria, and the rest that are on this side the river, and so forth.