4 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin+ heard that the returned exiles+ were building a temple to Jehovah the God of Israel, 2 they immediately approached Ze·rubʹba·bel and the heads of the paternal houses and said to them: “Let us build along with you; for like you, we worship* your God+ and we have been sacrificing to him since the days of King Eʹsar-hadʹdon+ of As·syrʹi·a, who brought us here.”+ 3 However, Ze·rubʹba·bel and Jeshʹu·a and the rest of the heads of the paternal houses of Israel said to them: “You have no share with us in building a house to our God,+ for we alone will build it to Jehovah the God of Israel, just as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”+

4 Then the people of the land were continually discouraging* the people of Judah and disheartening them from building.+ 5 They hired advisers against them to frustrate their plans+ all the days of King Cyrus of Persia until the reign of King Da·riʹus+ of Persia. 6 At the beginning of the reign of A·has·u·eʹrus, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.