Ezra 4:3-5

Common English Bible

³ But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of the families in Israel replied, “You’ll have no part with us in building a house for our God. We alone will build because the Lord, the God of Israel, and Persia’s King Cyrus commanded us.”

⁴ The neighboring peoples^[a] discouraged the people of Judah, made them afraid to build, ⁵ and bribed officials to frustrate their plan. They did this throughout the rule of Persia’s King Cyrus until the rule of Persia’s King Darius.