Ezra 4:3-5
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
3 But Zerub′babel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”
4 Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah, and made them afraid to build,[a] 5 and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Dari′us king of Persia.
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- 4.4 Understandably, the people who had occupied the land in the absence of the exiles now resented their return and, especially, the building of the temple.
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.