Ezra 4:2-4

New International Reader's Version

² Then those enemies came to Zerubbabel. The family leaders of Israel were with him. The enemies said, “We want to help you build. We’re just like you. We worship your God. We offer sacrifices to him. We’ve been doing that ever since the time of Esarhaddon. He was king of Assyria. He brought our people here.”

³ Zerubbabel and Joshua answered them. So did the rest of the family leaders of Israel. They said, “You can’t help us build a temple to honor our God. You aren’t part of us. We’ll build it ourselves. We’ll do it to honor the Lord, the God of Israel. Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us to build it.”

⁴ Then the nations around Judah tried to make its people lose hope. They wanted to make them afraid to go on building.