Ezra 4:4-16

4Then athe people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build 5and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

6And in the reign of bAhasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

The Letter to King Artaxerxes

7In the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam and cMithredath and Tabeel and the rest of their associates wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia. The letter was written din Aramaic and translated.
Hebrew  written in Aramaic and translated in Aramaic, indicating that 4:8–6:18 is in Aramaic; another interpretation is  The letter was written in the Aramaic script and set forth in the Aramaic language
8Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king as follows: 9Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their associates, the fjudges, the ggovernors, the officials, the Persians, the men of Erech, the Babylonians, the men of Susa, that is, the hElamites, 10and the rest of the nations whom the great and noble iOsnappar deported and settled in the cities of Samaria and in the rest of the province Beyond the River. 11(This is a copy of the letter that they sent.) “To Artaxerxes the king: Your servants, the men of the province Beyond the River, send greeting. And now 12be it known to the king that the Jews who came up from you to us have gone to Jerusalem. They are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city. They are jfinishing the walls and repairing the foundations. 13Now be it known to the king that if this city is rebuilt and the walls finished, they will not pay ktribute, custom, or toll, and the royal revenue will be impaired. 14Now because we eat the salt of the palace and it is not fitting for us to witness the king’s dishonor, therefore we send and inform the king, 15in order that search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers. You will find in the book of the records and learn that this city is a rebellious city, hurtful to kings and provinces, and that sedition was stirred up in it from of old. That was why this city was laid waste. 16We make known to the king that if this city is rebuilt and its walls finished, you will then have no possession in the province Beyond the River.”

Ezra 5:8

8Be it known to the king that we went to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God. It is being built with huge stones, and timber is laid in the walls. This work goes on diligently and prospers in their hands.
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