1 Esdras 2:19-21

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁹ You will find in the annals what has been written about them and will learn that this city was rebellious, troubling both kings and other cities, and that the Jews were rebels and kept setting up blockades in it from of old. That is why this city was laid waste. ²⁰ Therefore we now make known to you, O lord and king, that if this city is built and its walls finished, you will no longer have access to Coelesyria and Phoenicia.”^(A)

²¹ Then the king, in reply to the recorder Rehum, Beltethmus, the scribe Shimshai, and the others associated with them and living in Samaria and Syria and Phoenicia, wrote as follows:^(B)