Add parallel Print Page Options

However, Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of Israelite families replied: “You shall have no share in the building of the house for our God. We alone shall build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus of Persia has commanded us.”

As a result, the people who lived around them became determined to discourage the people of Judah and to make them fearful of continuing to build. Moreover, they also bribed officials to frustrate the plans of the people of Judah. This continued during the remaining years of the reign of King Cyrus of Persia and into the reign of King Darius of Persia.[a]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Ezra 4:5 Darius I (522–486 B.C.) included Syria and Palestine in his fifth satrapy (administrative province), known as the Satrapy Beyond the River (i.e., beyond the Euphrates). The account in verse 5 is taken up again in verse 24.