8In the second year after their arrival at the House of God, at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brother priests and Levites, and all who had come from the captivity to Jerusalem, as their first step appointed Levites from the age of twenty and upward to supervise the work of the House of the LORD. 9Jeshua, his sons and brothers, Kadmiel and his sons, a-the sons of Judah,-a together were appointed in charge of those who did the work in the House of God; also the sons of Henadad, their sons and brother Levites.
10When the builders had laid the foundation of the Temple of the LORD, priests in their vestments with trumpets, and Levites sons of Asaph with cymbals were stationed to give praise to the LORD, as King David of Israel had ordained. 11They sang songs extolling and praising the LORD, b-“For He is good, His steadfast love for Israel is eternal.”-b All the people raised a great shout extolling the LORD because the foundation of the House of the LORD had been laid. 12Many of the priests and Levites and the chiefs of the clans, the old men who had seen the first house, wept loudly at the sight of the founding of this house. Many others shouted joyously at the top of their voices. 13The people could not distinguish the shouts of joy from the people’s weeping, for the people raised a great shout, the sound of which could be heard from afar.
4 When the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the LORD God of Israel, 2they approached Zerubbabel and the chiefs of the clans and said to them, “Let us build with you, since we too worship your God, having offered sacrifices to Him since the time of King Esarhaddon of Assyria, who brought us here.” 3Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the chiefs of the clans of Israel answered them, “It is not for you and us to build a House to our God, but we alone will build it to the LORD God of Israel, in accord with the charge that the king, King Cyrus of Persia, laid upon us.” 4Thereupon the people of the land undermined the resolve of the people of Judah, and made them afraid to build. 5They bribed ministers in order to thwart their plans all the years of King Cyrus of Persia and until the reign of King Darius of Persia.
6And in the reign of Ahasuerus, at the start of his reign, they drew up an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
7And in the time of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their colleagues wrote to King Artaxerxes of Persia, a letter written in Aramaic and translated.a
Aramaic:b 8Rehum the commissioner and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter concerning Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows: (9cThen Rehum the commissioner and Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their colleagues, the judges, officials, officers, and overseers, the men of Erech, and of Babylon, and of Susa—that is the Elamites—10and other peoples whom the great and glorious Osnappar deported and settled in the city of Samaria and the rest of the province Beyond the River [wrote]— and now 11this is the text of the letter which they sent to him:)— “To King Artaxerxes [from] your servants, men of the province Beyond the River. And now 12be it known to the king that the Jews who came up from you to us have reached Jerusalem and are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city; they are completing the walls and repairing the foundation. 13Now be it known to the king that if this city is rebuilt and the walls completed, they will not pay tribute, poll-tax, or land-tax, and in the end it will harm the kingdom. 14Now since we eat the salt of the palace, and it is not right that we should see the king dishonored, we have written to advise the king [of this] 15so that you may search the records of your fathers and find in the records and know that this city is a rebellious city, harmful to kings and states. Sedition has been rife in it from early times; on that account this city was destroyed. 16We advise the king that if this city is rebuilt and its walls are completed, you will no longer have any portion in the province Beyond the River.”
17The king sent back the following message: “To Rehum the commissioner and Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their colleagues, who dwell in Samaria and in the rest of the province of Beyond the River, greetings. 18Now the letter that you wrote me has been read to me in translation.d19At my order a search has been made, and it has been found that this city has from earliest times risen against kings, and that rebellion and sedition have been rife in it. 20Powerful kings have ruled over Jerusalem and exercised authority over the whole province of Beyond the River, and tribute, poll-tax, and land-tax were paid to them. 21Now issue an order to stop these men; this city is not to be rebuilt until I so order. 22Take care not to be lax in this matter or there will be much damage and harm to the kingdom.”
23When the text of the letter of King Artaxerxes was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their colleagues, they hurried to Jerusalem, to the Jews, and stopped them by main force. 24At that time, work on the House of God in Jerusalem stopped and remained in abeyance until the second year of the reign of King Darius of Persia.
5 Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem, a-inspired by the God of Israel.-a 2Thereupon Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak began rebuilding the House of God in Jerusalem, with the full support of the prophets of God. 3At once Tattenai, governor of the province of Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and their colleagues descended upon them and said this to them, “Who issued orders to you to rebuild this house and complete its furnishing?” 4Then web said to them, “What are the names of the men who are engaged in the building?” 5But God watched over the elders of the Jews and they were not stopped while a report went to Darius and a letter was sent back in reply to it.
6This is the text of the letter that Tattenai, governor of the province of Beyond the River, and Shethar-bozenai and his colleagues, the officials of Beyond the River, sent to King Darius. 7They sent a message to him and this is what was written in it: “To King Darius, greetings, and so forth. 8Be it known to the king, that we went to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God. It is being rebuilt of hewn stone, and wood is being laid in the walls. The work is being done with dispatch and is going well. 9Thereupon we directed this question to these elders, ‘Who issued orders to you to rebuild this house and to complete its furnishings?’ 10We also asked their names so that we could write down the names of their leaders for your information. 11This is what they answered us: ‘We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth; we are rebuilding the house that was originally built many years ago; a great king of Israel built it and completed it. 12But because our fathers angered the God of Heaven, He handed them over to Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldean, king of Babylon, who demolished this house and exiled the people to Babylon. 13But in the first year of King Cyrus of Babylon, King Cyrus issued an order to rebuild this House of God. 14Also the silver and gold vessels of the House of God that Nebuchadnezzar had taken away from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to the temple in Babylon—King Cyrus released them from the temple in Babylon to be given to the one called Sheshbazzar whom he had appointed governor. 15He said to him, “Take these vessels, go, deposit them in the temple in Jerusalem, and let the House of God be rebuilt on its original site.” 16That same Sheshbazzar then came and laid the foundations for the House of God in Jerusalem; and ever since then it has been under construction, but is not yet finished.’ 17And now, if it please the king, let the royal archives there in Babylon be searched to see whether indeed an order had been
