Ezra 4:2-4

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

² They came to Zerubbabel [now governor] and to the heads of the fathers’ houses and said, Let us build with you, for we seek and worship your God as you do, and we have sacrificed to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.^(A)

³ But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses of Israel said to them, You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.

⁴ Then [the Samaritans] the people of the land [continually] weakened the hands of the people of Judah and troubled and terrified them in building