Study Desk

Now, when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard - that, the Sons of the Exile, were building the temple, unto Yahweh, God of Israel,

then drew they near unto Zerubbabel, and unto the ancestral chiefs, and said unto them, Let us build with you, for, like you, we seek your God, and, unto him, have, we, been sacrificing since the days of Esar-haddon, king of Assyria, who brought us up hither.

But Zerubbabel and Joshua and the rest of the ancestral chiefs of Israel, said unto them, It pertaineth not to you and to us in common , to build a house unto our God, - but, we ourselves together, will build unto Yahweh, God of Israel, even as King Cyrus, king of Persia, hath commanded us.

Then came it to pass, that, the people of the land, were weakening the hands of the people of Judah, - and troubling them in building;

and hiring against them counselors, to overturn their purpose, - all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius, king of Persia.