Ezra 4:1-5

Adversaries Hinder the Work

1 Now when ¹the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that ²the people of the exile were building a temple to the LORD God of Israel,

2 they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers' households, and said to them, "Let us build with you, for we, like you, seek your God; ³and we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of ⁴Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here."

3 But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers' households of Israel said to them, "⁵You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build to the LORD God of Israel, ⁶as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us."

4 Then ⁷the people of the land discouraged * the people of Judah, and frightened them from building,

5 and hired counselors against them to frustrate their counsel all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Ezra 4:1-5 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZRA 4

The contents of this chapter are the offer the Samaritans made to the Jews, to assist them in building the temple, which having refused, they gave them all the trouble they could, Ezr 4:1-6 and a letter of theirs to Artaxerxes, king of Persia, full of accusations of them, Ezr 4:7-16 and the answer of Artaxerxes to it, giving orders to command the Jews to cease building the temple, Ezr 4:17-22 which orders were accordingly executed, and the work ceased till the second year of Darius, Ezr 4:23,24.

Cross References

• 1. Ezra 4:7-10
• 2. Ezra 1:11
• 3. 2 Kings 17:32
• 4. 2 Kings 19:37
• 5. Nehemiah 2:20
• 6. Ezra 1:1, 2
• 7. Ezra 3:3

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "weakened the hands of"