21. So, now issue a decree to make these men stop work, that this city may not be rebuilt until a decree is issued by me.
22. Beware of being negligent in carrying out this matter; why should damage increase to the detriment of the kings?"
23. Then as soon as the copy of King Artaxerxes' document was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their colleagues, they went in haste to Jerusalem to the Jews and stopped them by force of arms.
24. Then work on the house of God in Jerusalem ceased, and it was stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.