1 Esdras 4

¹But the enemies of Juda and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity built a temple to our Lord the God of Israel.

²And coming to Zorobabel, & the Princes of the fathers, they said to them: Let us build with you, because even as you, so do we seek your God: Behold we have immolated victims from the days of Asor Haddan the king of Assur, which brought us hither.

³And Zorobabel said to them, and Josue, and the rest of the Princes of the fathers of Israel: It is not for you and us to build a house to our God, but we ourselves alone will build to the Lord our God, as Cyrus the king of the Persians hath commanded us.

⁴It came to pass therefore that the people of the land hindered the hands of the people of Juda, & troubled them in building.

⁵And they hired counsellers against them, to destroy their counsel all the days of Cyrus the king of the Persians, and until the reign of Darius the king of the Persians.

⁶And in the reign of Assuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Juda and Jerusalem.

⁷And in the days of Artaxerxes, Beselam, Mithridates, & Thabeel, and the rest that were in their counsel writ to Artaxerxes king of the Persians: and the epistle of the accusation was written in Syriac, and was read in the Syrian language.

⁸Reum Beelteem, and Samsai scribe wrote one epistle from Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king, of this tenure:

⁹Reum Beelteem, and Samsai scribe, and the rest of their counsellers, the Dineites, and the Apharsathaceites, the Terphaleites, the Apharsaites, the Erchueites, the Babylonians, the Susanecheites, the Dievites, and the Ælamites,

¹⁰and the rest of the Gentiles, which Asenaphar the great and glorious transported: and made them dwell in the cities of Samaria, and in the rest of the countries beyond the River in peace:

¹¹(this is the copy of the epistle, which they sent to him:) To Artaxerxes the king, thy servants, the men that are beyond the River, send greeting.

¹²Be it known to the king, that the Jews, which came up from thee to us, are come into Jerusalem, a rebellious & naughty city, which they build, making the rampires thereof, & repairing the walls.

¹³Now therefore be it known to the king, that if that city shall be built, & the walls thereof repaired, they will not give tribute, and toll, and yearly rents, and this damage will come even to the kings.

¹⁴But we mindful of the salt that we have eaten in the palace, and because we count it heinous to see the king's harms, therefore we have sent and certified the king,

¹⁵that thou recount in the Books of the histories of thy fathers, and thou shalt find written in the commentaries, and shalt know that that city is a rebellious city, and hurtful to the kings, and provinces, and battles are raised in it of old time: for the which cause also the city it-self was destroyed.

¹⁶We certify the king, that if that city shall be built, and the walls thereof repaired, thou shalt have no possession beyond the River.

¹⁷The king sent word to Reum Beelteem, and Samsai scribe, and to the rest that were in their counsel inhabitants of Samaria, and to the rest beyond the River, sending greeting and peace.

¹⁸The accusation, which you have sent to us, was openly read before me.

¹⁹and I gave commandment: and they recounted, and have found, that that city of old time rebelleth against the kings, & seditions and battles are raised in it.

²⁰For there have been also most valiant kings in Jerusalem, which also had dominion over all the country that is beyond the River. They took also tribute, & toll and rents.

²¹Now therefore hear the sentence: Prohibit ye those men, that that city be not built, till it perhaps shall be commanded by me.

²²See that you do not negligently accomplish this thing, and by little there grow evil against the kings.

²³Therefore the copy of the edict of Artaxerxes the king was read before Reum Beelteem, and Samsai the scribe, and their counsellers: and they went in haste into Jerusalem to the Jews, and prohibited them with arm and strength.

²⁴Then was the work of the house of our Lord in Jerusalem intermitted, and was not done until the second year of the reign of Darius the king of the Persians.