1 Esdras 2:20-22

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

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)

²² “I have read the letter that you sent me. So I ordered search to be made, and it has been found that this city from of old has fought against kings,