Ezra 4:1-3

Adversaries Discourage the Work

Then ^athe adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that ^bthe people of the exile were building a temple to Yahweh, the God of Israel, 2 so they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ households and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we, like you, seek your God; ^aand we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of ^bEsarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.” 3 But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers’ households of Israel said to them, “^aYou have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build to Yahweh, the God of Israel, ^bas King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.”