3But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers’households of Israelsaid to them, “aYou have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will togetherbuild to Yahweh, the God of Israel, bas KingCyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.”
4So athe people of the land1discouraged the people of Judah and dismayed them from building, 5and hiredcounselorsagainst them to frustrate their counselall the days of Cyrusking of Persia, even until the reign of Dariusking of Persia.
6Now in the reign of 1,aAhasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusationagainst the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
