Ezra 4:2-10

2they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ households, and said to them, “Let us build with you, for like you, we seek your God; 1and we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of 2Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.” 3But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers’ households of Israel said to them, “3You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build for the Lord God of Israel, 4just as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.”

4Then 5the people of the land 6discouraged the people of Judah, and frightened them from building, 5and bribed advisers against them to frustrate their advice all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

6Now in the reign of 78Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

7And in the days of 9Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his colleagues wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia; and the 10text of the letter was written in Aramaic and translated 11from Aramaic. 812Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes, as follows-- 913Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and 14the rest of their colleagues, the judges and 15the lesser governors, the officials, the secretaries, the men of Erech, the Babylonians, the men of Susa, that is, the Elamites, 10and the rest of the nations which the great and honorable 16Osnappar deported and settled in the city of Samaria, and in the rest of the region beyond the Euphrates River. 17And now