Foreigners^[a] Want To Help Rebuild the Temple

4 The enemies of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people had come back to rebuild the temple of the Lord God of Israel. ^2 (A) So they went to Zerubbabel and to the family leaders and said, “Let us help! Ever since King Esarhaddon of Assyria^[b] brought us here, we have worshiped your God and offered sacrifices to him.”

³ But Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the family leaders answered, “You cannot take part in building a temple for the Lord our God! We will build it ourselves, just as King Cyrus of Persia commanded us.”

⁴ Then the neighboring people began to do everything possible to frighten the Jews^[c] and to make them stop building. ⁵ During the time that Cyrus was king and even until Darius^[d] became king, they kept bribing government officials to slow down the work.

Nehemiah's Enemies

4 When Sanballat, the governor of Samaria, heard that we were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, he became angry and started insulting our people.

² In front of his friends and the Samaritan army he said, “What is this feeble bunch of Jews trying to do? Are they going to rebuild the wall and offer sacrifices all in one day? Do they think they can make something out of this pile of scorched stones?”