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Selected Verse: Ezra 4:24 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Ezr 4:24	Strong Concordance	Then [0116] ceased [0989] the work [05673] of the house [01005] of God [0426] which is at Jerusalem [03390]. So it ceased [01934] [0989] unto [05705] the second [08648] year [08140] of the reign [04437] of Darius [01868] king [04430] of Persia [06540].
	King James	Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
Then ceased the work of the house of God--It was this occurrence that first gave rise to the strong religious antipathy between the Jews and the Samaritans, which was afterwards greatly aggravated by the erection of a rival temple on Mount Gerizim.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

Then ceased the work of the house of God--It was this occurrence that first gave rise to the strong religious antipathy between the Jews and the Samaritans, which was afterwards greatly aggravated by the erection of a rival temple on Mount Gerizim.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
It ceased - The stoppage of the building by the Pseudo-Smerdis is in complete harmony with his character. He was a Magus, devoted to the Magian elemental worship, and opposed to belief in a personal god. His religion did not approve of temples; and as he persecuted the Zoroastrian so would he naturally be hostile to the Jewish faith. The building was resumed in the second year of Darius (520 B.C.), and was only interrupted for about two years; since the Pseudo-Smerdis reigned less than one year.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
"Then ceased the work of the house of God at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of Darius king of Persia." With this statement the narrator returns to the notice in Ezr 4:5, that the adversaries of Judah succeeded in delaying the building of the temple till the reign of King Darius, which he takes up, and now adds the more precise information that it ceased till the second year of King Darius. The intervening section, Ezr 4:6, gives a more detailed account of those accusations against the Jews made by their adversaries to kings Ahashverosh and Artachshasta. If we read Ezr 4:23 and Ezr 4:24 as successive, we get an impression that the discontinuation to build mentioned in Ezr 4:24 was the effect and consequence of the prohibition obtained from King Artachshasta, through the complaints brought against the Jews by his officials on this side the river; the בּאדין of Ezr 4:24 seeming to refer to the אדין of Ezr 4:23. Under this impression, older expositors have without hesitation referred the contents of Ezr 4:6 to the interruption to the building of the temple during the period from Cyrus to Darius, and understood the two names Ahashverosh and Artachshasta as belonging to Cambyses and (Pseudo) Smerdis, the monarchs who reigned between Cyrus and Darius. Grave objections to this view have, however, been raised by Kleinert (in the Beitrgen der Dorpater Prof. d. Theol. 8132, vol. i) and J. W. Schultz (Cyrus der Grosse, in Theol. Stud. u. Krit. 1853, p. 624, etc.), who have sought to prove that none but the Persian kings Xerxes and Artaxerxes can be meant by Ahashverosh and Artachshasta, and that the section Ezr 4:6 relates not to the building of the temple, but to the building of the walls of Jerusalem, and forms an interpolation or episode, in which the historian makes the efforts of the adversaries of Judah to prevent the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem under Xerxes and Artaxerxes follow immediately after his statement of their attempt to hinder the building of the temple, for the sake of presenting at one glance a view of all their machinations against the Jews. This view has been advocated not only by Vaihinger, "On the Elucidation of the History of Israel after the Captivity," in the Theol. Stud. u. Krit. 1857, p. 87, etc., and Bertheau in his Commentary on this passage, but also by Hengstenberg, Christol. iii. p. 143, Auberlen, and others, and opposed by Ewald in the 2nd edition of his Gesch. Israels, iv. p. 118, where he embraces the older explanation of these verses, and A. Koehler on Haggai, p. 20. On reviewing the arguments advanced in favour of the more modern view, we can lay no weight at all upon the circumstance that in Ezr 4:6 the building of the temple is not spoken of. The contents of the letter sent to Ahashverosh (Ezr 4:6) are not stated; in that to Artachshasta (Ezr 4:11) the writers certainly accuse the Jews of building the rebellious and bad city (Jerusalem), of setting up its walls and digging out its foundations (Ezr 4:12); but the whole document is so evidently the result of ardent hatred and malevolent suspicion, that well-founded objections to the truthfulness of these accusations may reasonably be entertained. Such adversaries might, for the sake of more surely attaining their end of obstructing the work of the Jews, easily represent the act of laying the foundations and building the walls of the temple as a rebuilding of the town walls. The answer of the king, too (Ezr 4:17), would naturally treat only of such matters as the accusers had mentioned. The argument derived from the names of the kings is of far more importance. The name אחשׁורושׁ (in Ezr 4:6) occurs also in the book of Esther, where, as is now universally acknowledged, the Persian king Xerxes is meant; and in Dan 9:1, as the name of the Median king Kyaxares. In the cuneiform inscriptions the name is in Old-Persian Ksayarsa, in Assyrian Hisiarsi, in which it is easy to recognise both the Hebrew form Ahashverosh, and the Greek forms Ξέρξης and Κυαξάρης. On the other hand, the name Cambyses (Old-Persian Kambudshja) offers no single point of identity; the words are radically different, whilst nothing is known of Cambyses having ever borne a second name or surname similar in sound to the Hebrew Ahashverosh. The name Artachshasta, moreover, both in Est 7:1-10 and 8, and in the book of Nehemiah, undoubtedly denotes the monarch known as Artaxerxes (Longimanus). It is, indeed, in both these books written ארתּחשׁסתּא with ס, and in the present section, and in Ezr 6:14, ארתּחששׁתּא; but this slight difference of orthography is no argument for difference of person, ארתחשׁשׁתא seeming to be a mode of spelling the word peculiar to the author of the Chaldee section, Ezra 4-6. Two other names, indeed, of Smerdis, the successor of Cambyses, have been handed down to us. According to Xenophon, Cyrop. viii. 7, and Ktesias, Pers. fr. 8-13, he is said to have been called Tanyoxares, and according to Justini hist. i. 9, Oropastes; and Ewald is of opinion that the latter name is properly Ortosastes, which might answer to Artachshasta. It is also not improbable that Smerdis may, as king, have assumed the name of Artachshasta, Ἀρταξέρξης, which Herodotus (vi. 98) explains by μέγας ἀρήΐος. But neither this possibility, nor the opinion of Ewald, that Ortosastes is the correct reading for Oropastes in Just. hist. i. 9, can lay any claim to probability, unless other grounds also exist for the identification of Artachshasta with Smerdis. Such grounds, however, are wanting; while, on the other hand, it is priori improbable that Ps. Smerdis, who reigned but about seven months, should in this short period have pronounced such a decision concerning the matter of building the temple of Jerusalem, as we read in the letter of Artachshasta, Ezr 4:17, even if the adversaries of the Jews should, though residing in Palestine, have laid their complaints before him, immediately after his accession to the throne. When we consider also the great improbability of Ahashverosh being a surname of Cambyses, we feel constrained to embrace the view that the section Ezr 4:6 is an episode inserted by the historian, on the occasion of narrating the interruption to the building of the temple, brought about by the enemies of the Jews, and for the sake of giving a short and comprehensive view of all the hostile acts against the Jewish community on the part of the Samaritans and surrounding nations. The contents and position of Ezr 4:24 may easily be reconciled with this view, which also refutes as unfounded the assertion of Herzfeld, Gesch. des Volkes Israel, i. p. 303, and Schrader, p. 469, that the author of the book of Ezra himself erroneously refers the document given, Ezr 4:6, to the erection of the temple, instead of to the subsequent building of the walls of Jerusalem. For, to say nothing of the contents of Ezr 4:6, although it may seem natural to refer the בּאדין of Ezr 4:24 to Ezr 4:23, it cannot be affirmed that this reference is either necessary or the only one allowable. The assertion that בּאדין is "always connected with that which immediately precedes," cannot be strengthened by an appeal to Ezr 5:2; Ezr 6:1; Dan 2:14, Dan 2:46; Dan 3:3, and other passages. בּאדין, then (= at that time), in contradistinction to אדין, thereupon, only refers a narrative, in a general manner, to the time spoken of in that which precedes it. When, then, it is said, then, or at that time, the work of the house of God ceased (Ezr 4:24), the then can only refer to what was before related concerning the building of the house of God, i.e., to the narrative Ezr 4:1. This reference of Ezr 4:24 to Ezr 4:1 is raised above all doubt, by the fact that the contents of Ezr 4:24 are but a recapitulation of Ezr 4:5; it being said in both, that the cessation from building the temple lasted till the reign, or, as it is more precisely stated in Ezr 4:24, till the second year of the reign, of Darius king of Persia. With this recapitulation of the contents of Ezr 4:5, the narrative, Ezr 4:24, returns to the point which it had reached at Ezr 4:5. What lies between is thereby characterized as an illustrative episode, the relation of which to that which precedes and follows it, is to be perceived and determined solely by its contents. If, then, in this episode, we find not only that the building of the temple is not spoken of, but that letters are given addressed to the Kings Ahashverosh and Artachshasta, who, as all Ezra's contemporaries would know, reigned not before but after Darius, the very introduction of the first letter with the words, "And in the reign of Ahashverosh" (Ezr 4:6), after the preceding statement, "until the reign of Darius king of Persia" (Ezr 4:5), would be sufficient to obviate the misconception that letters addressed to Ahashverosh and Artachshasta related to matters which happened in the period between Cyrus and Darius Hystaspis. Concerning another objection to this view of Ezr 4:6, viz., that it would be strange that King Artaxerxes, who is described to us in Ezra 7 and in Nehemiah as very favourable to the Jews, should have been for a time so prejudiced against them as to forbid the building of the town and walls of Jerusalem, we shall have an opportunity of speaking in our explanations of Neh 1:1-11. - Ezr 4:24, so far, then, as its matter is concerned, belongs to the following chapter, to which it forms an introduction.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

"Then ceased the work of the house of God at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of Darius king of Persia." With this statement the narrator returns to the notice in Ezr 4:5, that the adversaries of Judah succeeded in delaying the building of the temple till the reign of King Darius, which he takes up, and now adds the more precise information that it ceased till the second year of King Darius. The intervening section, Ezr 4:6, gives a more detailed account of those accusations against the Jews made by their adversaries to kings Ahashverosh and Artachshasta. If we read Ezr 4:23 and Ezr 4:24 as successive, we get an impression that the discontinuation to build mentioned in Ezr 4:24 was the effect and consequence of the prohibition obtained from King Artachshasta, through the complaints brought against the Jews by his officials on this side the river; the בּאדין of Ezr 4:24 seeming to refer to the אדין of Ezr 4:23. Under this impression, older expositors have without hesitation referred the contents of Ezr 4:6 to the interruption to the building of the temple during the period from Cyrus to Darius, and understood the two names Ahashverosh and Artachshasta as belonging to Cambyses and (Pseudo) Smerdis, the monarchs who reigned between Cyrus and Darius. Grave objections to this view have, however, been raised by Kleinert (in the Beitrgen der Dorpater Prof. d. Theol. 8132, vol. i) and J. W. Schultz (Cyrus der Grosse, in Theol. Stud. u. Krit. 1853, p. 624, etc.), who have sought to prove that none but the Persian kings Xerxes and Artaxerxes can be meant by Ahashverosh and Artachshasta, and that the section Ezr 4:6 relates not to the building of the temple, but to the building of the walls of Jerusalem, and forms an interpolation or episode, in which the historian makes the efforts of the adversaries of Judah to prevent the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem under Xerxes and Artaxerxes follow immediately after his statement of their attempt to hinder the building of the temple, for the sake of presenting at one glance a view of all their machinations against the Jews. This view has been advocated not only by Vaihinger, "On the Elucidation of the History of Israel after the Captivity," in the Theol. Stud. u. Krit. 1857, p. 87, etc., and Bertheau in his Commentary on this passage, but also by Hengstenberg, Christol. iii. p. 143, Auberlen, and others, and opposed by Ewald in the 2nd edition of his Gesch. Israels, iv. p. 118, where he embraces the older explanation of these verses, and A. Koehler on Haggai, p. 20. On reviewing the arguments advanced in favour of the more modern view, we can lay no weight at all upon the circumstance that in Ezr 4:6 the building of the temple is not spoken of. The contents of the letter sent to Ahashverosh (Ezr 4:6) are not stated; in that to Artachshasta (Ezr 4:11) the writers certainly accuse the Jews of building the rebellious and bad city (Jerusalem), of setting up its walls and digging out its foundations (Ezr 4:12); but the whole document is so evidently the result of ardent hatred and malevolent suspicion, that well-founded objections to the truthfulness of these accusations may reasonably be entertained. Such adversaries might, for the sake of more surely attaining their end of obstructing the work of the Jews, easily represent the act of laying the foundations and building the walls of the temple as a rebuilding of the town walls. The answer of the king, too (Ezr 4:17), would naturally treat only of such matters as the accusers had mentioned.

The argument derived from the names of the kings is of far more importance. The name אחשׁורושׁ (in Ezr 4:6) occurs also in the book of Esther, where, as is now universally acknowledged, the Persian king Xerxes is meant; and in Dan 9:1, as the name of the Median king Kyaxares. In the cuneiform inscriptions the name is in Old-Persian Ksayarsa, in Assyrian Hisiarsi, in which it is easy to recognise both the Hebrew form Ahashverosh, and the Greek forms Ξέρξης and Κυαξάρης. On the other hand, the name Cambyses (Old-Persian Kambudshja) offers no single point of identity; the words are radically different, whilst nothing is known of Cambyses having ever borne a second name or surname similar in sound to the Hebrew Ahashverosh. The name Artachshasta, moreover, both in Est 7:1-10 and 8, and in the book of Nehemiah, undoubtedly denotes the monarch known as Artaxerxes (Longimanus). It is, indeed, in both these books written ארתּחשׁסתּא with ס, and in the present section, and in Ezr 6:14, ארתּחששׁתּא; but this slight difference of orthography is no argument for difference of person, ארתחשׁשׁתא seeming to be a mode of spelling the word peculiar to the author of the Chaldee section, Ezra 4-6. Two other names, indeed, of Smerdis, the successor of Cambyses, have been handed down to us. According to Xenophon, Cyrop. viii. 7, and Ktesias, Pers. fr. 8-13, he is said to have been called Tanyoxares, and according to Justini hist. i. 9, Oropastes; and Ewald is of opinion that the latter name is properly Ortosastes, which might answer to Artachshasta. It is also not improbable that Smerdis may, as king, have assumed the name of Artachshasta, Ἀρταξέρξης, which Herodotus (vi. 98) explains by μέγας ἀρήΐος. But neither this possibility, nor the opinion of Ewald, that Ortosastes is the correct reading for Oropastes in Just. hist. i. 9, can lay any claim to probability, unless other grounds also exist for the identification of Artachshasta with Smerdis. Such grounds, however, are wanting; while, on the other hand, it is priori improbable that Ps. Smerdis, who reigned but about seven months, should in this short period have pronounced such a decision concerning the matter of building the temple of Jerusalem, as we read in the letter of Artachshasta, Ezr 4:17, even if the adversaries of the Jews should, though residing in Palestine, have laid their complaints before him, immediately after his accession to the throne. When we consider also the great improbability of Ahashverosh being a surname of Cambyses, we feel constrained to embrace the view that the section Ezr 4:6 is an episode inserted by the historian, on the occasion of narrating the interruption to the building of the temple, brought about by the enemies of the Jews, and for the sake of giving a short and comprehensive view of all the hostile acts against the Jewish community on the part of the Samaritans and surrounding nations.

The contents and position of Ezr 4:24 may easily be reconciled with this view, which also refutes as unfounded the assertion of Herzfeld, Gesch. des Volkes Israel, i. p. 303, and Schrader, p. 469, that the author of the book of Ezra himself erroneously refers the document given, Ezr 4:6, to the erection of the temple, instead of to the subsequent building of the walls of Jerusalem. For, to say nothing of the contents of Ezr 4:6, although it may seem natural to refer the בּאדין of Ezr 4:24 to Ezr 4:23, it cannot be affirmed that this reference is either necessary or the only one allowable. The assertion that בּאדין is "always connected with that which immediately precedes," cannot be strengthened by an appeal to Ezr 5:2; Ezr 6:1; Dan 2:14, Dan 2:46; Dan 3:3, and other passages. בּאדין, then (= at that time), in contradistinction to אדין, thereupon, only refers a narrative, in a general manner, to the time spoken of in that which precedes it. When, then, it is said, then, or at that time, the work of the house of God ceased (Ezr 4:24), the then can only refer to what was before related concerning the building of the house of God, i.e., to the narrative Ezr 4:1. This reference of Ezr 4:24 to Ezr 4:1 is raised above all doubt, by the fact that the contents of Ezr 4:24 are but a recapitulation of Ezr 4:5; it being said in both, that the cessation from building the temple lasted till the reign, or, as it is more precisely stated in Ezr 4:24, till the second year of the reign, of Darius king of Persia. With this recapitulation of the contents of Ezr 4:5, the narrative, Ezr 4:24, returns to the point which it had reached at Ezr 4:5. What lies between is thereby characterized as an illustrative episode, the relation of which to that which precedes and follows it, is to be perceived and determined solely by its contents. If, then, in this episode, we find not only that the building of the temple is not spoken of, but that letters are given addressed to the Kings Ahashverosh and Artachshasta, who, as all Ezra's contemporaries would know, reigned not before but after Darius, the very introduction of the first letter with the words, "And in the reign of Ahashverosh" (Ezr 4:6), after the preceding statement, "until the reign of Darius king of Persia" (Ezr 4:5), would be sufficient to obviate the misconception that letters addressed to Ahashverosh and Artachshasta related to matters which happened in the period between Cyrus and Darius Hystaspis. Concerning another objection to this view of Ezr 4:6, viz., that it would be strange that King Artaxerxes, who is described to us in Ezra 7 and in Nehemiah as very favourable to the Jews, should have been for a time so prejudiced against them as to forbid the building of the town and walls of Jerusalem, we shall have an opportunity of speaking in our explanations of Neh 1:1-11. - Ezr 4:24, so far, then, as its matter is concerned, belongs to the following chapter, to which it forms an introduction.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
Darius - Darius the son of Hystaspes, successor of Cambyses.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
So it ceased unto the second year of - Darius - They had begun in the first year of Cyrus, b.c. 536, to go up to Jerusalem, and they were obliged to desist from the building b.c. 522; and thus they continued till the second year of Darius, b.c. 519. See the chronology in Hag 1:1 (note) and Zac 1:1 (note) and the following chapter, Ezra 5 (note).

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²⁴ Then [0116] ceased [0989] the work [05673] of the house [01005] of God [0426] which is at Jerusalem [03390]. So it ceased [01934] [0989] unto [05705] the second [08648] year [08140] of the reign [04437] of Darius [01868] king [04430] of Persia [06540].

¹ The words [01697] of Nehemiah [05166] the son [01121] of Hachaliah [02446]. And it came to pass in the month [02320] Chisleu [03691], in the twentieth [06242] year [08141], as I was in Shushan [07800] the palace [01002],
² That Hanani [02607], one [0259] of my brethren [0251], came [0935], he and certain men [0582] of Judah [03063]; and I asked [07592] them concerning the Jews [03064] that had escaped [06413], which were left [07604] of the captivity [07628], and concerning Jerusalem [03389].
³ And they said [0559] unto me, The remnant [07604] that are left [07604] of the captivity [07628] there in the province [04082] are in great [01419] affliction [07451] and reproach [02781]: the wall [02346] of Jerusalem [03389] also is broken down [06555], and the gates [08179] thereof are burned [03341] with fire [0784].
⁴ And it came to pass, when I heard [08085] these words [01697], that I sat down [03427] and wept [01058], and mourned [056] certain days [03117], and fasted [06684], and prayed [06419] before [06440] the God [0430] of heaven [08064],
⁵ And said [0559], I beseech [0577] thee, O LORD [03068] God [0430] of heaven [08064], the great [01419] and terrible [03372] God [0410], that keepeth [08104] covenant [01285] and mercy [02617] for them that love [0157] him and observe [08104] his commandments [04687]:
⁶ Let thine ear [0241] now be attentive [07183], and thine eyes [05869] open [06605], that thou mayest hear [08085] the prayer [08605] of thy servant [05650], which I pray [06419] before [06440] thee now [03117], day [03119] and night [03915], for the children [01121] of Israel [03478] thy servants [05650], and confess [03034] the sins [02403] of the children [01121] of Israel [03478], which we have sinned [02398] against thee: both I and my father's [01] house [01004] have sinned [02398].
⁷ We have dealt very [02254] corruptly [02254] against thee, and have not kept [08104] the commandments [04687], nor the statutes [02706], nor the judgments [04941], which thou commandedst [06680] thy servant [05650] Moses [04872].
⁸ Remember [02142], I beseech thee, the word [01697] that thou commandedst [06680] thy servant [05650] Moses [04872], saying [0559], If ye transgress [04603], I will scatter you abroad [06327] among the nations [05971]:
⁹ But if ye turn [07725] unto me, and keep [08104] my commandments [04687], and do [06213] them; though there were of you cast out [05080] unto the uttermost part [07097] of the heaven [08064], yet will I gather [06908] them from thence, and will bring [0935] them unto the place [04725] that I have chosen [0977] to set [07931] my name [08034] there.
¹⁰ Now these are thy servants [05650] and thy people [05971], whom thou hast redeemed [06299] by thy great [01419] power [03581], and by thy strong [02389] hand [03027].
¹¹ O Lord [0136], I beseech [0577] thee, let now thine ear [0241] be attentive [07183] to the prayer [08605] of thy servant [05650], and to the prayer [08605] of thy servants [05650], who desire [02655] to fear [03372] thy name [08034]: and prosper [06743], I pray thee, thy servant [05650] this day [03117], and grant [05414] him mercy [07356] in the sight [06440] of this man [0376]. For I was the king's [04428] cupbearer [08248].

⁶ And in the reign [04438] of Ahasuerus [0325], in the beginning [08462] of his reign [04438], wrote [03789] they unto him an accusation [07855] against the inhabitants [03427] of Judah [03063] and Jerusalem [03389].

⁵ And hired [07936] counsellors [03289] against them, to frustrate [06565] their purpose [06098], all the days [03117] of Cyrus [03566] king [04428] of Persia [06539], even until the reign [04438] of Darius [01867] king [04428] of Persia [06539].

¹ Now when the adversaries [06862] of Judah [03063] and Benjamin [01144] heard [08085] that the children [01121] of the captivity [01473] builded [01129] the temple [01964] unto the LORD [03068] God [0430] of Israel [03478];

³ Then [0116] the princes [0324], the governors [05460], and captains [06347], the judges [0148], the treasurers [01411], the counsellors [01884], the sheriffs [08614], and all [03606] the rulers [07984] of the provinces [04083], were gathered together [03673] unto the dedication [02597] of the image [06755] that Nebuchadnezzar [05020] the king [04430] had set up [06966]; and they stood [06966] before [06903] the image [06755] that Nebuchadnezzar [05020] had set up [06966].

⁴⁶ Then [0116] the king [04430] Nebuchadnezzar [05020] fell [05308] upon [05922] his face [0600], and worshipped [05457] Daniel [01841], and commanded [0560] that they should offer [05260] an oblation [04504] and sweet odours [05208] unto him.

¹⁴ Then [0116] Daniel [01841] answered [08421] with counsel [05843] and wisdom [02942] to Arioch [0746] the captain [07229] of [01768] the king's [04430] guard [02877], which was gone forth [05312] to slay [06992] the wise [02445] men of Babylon [0895]:

¹ Then [0116] Darius [01868] the king [04430] made [07761] a decree [02942], and search [01240] was made in the house [01005] of the rolls [05609], where [08536] the treasures [01596] were laid up [05182] in Babylon [0895].

² Then [0116] rose up [06966] Zerubbabel [02217] the son [01247] of Shealtiel [07598], and Jeshua [03443] the son [01247] of Jozadak [03136], and began [08271] to build [01124] the house [01005] of God [0426] which is at Jerusalem [03390]: and with them [05974] were the prophets [05029] of God [0426] helping [05583] them.

²³ Now [0116] when [04481] [01768] the copy [06573] of king [04430] Artaxerxes [0783]' letter [05407] was read [07123] before [06925] Rehum [07348], and Shimshai [08124] the scribe [05613], and their companions [03675], they went up [0236] in haste [0924] to Jerusalem [03390] unto [05922] the Jews [03062], and made them [01994] to cease [0989] by force [0153] and power [02429].

¹⁷ Then sent [07972] the king [04430] an answer [06600] unto [05922] Rehum [07348] the chancellor [01169] [02942], and to Shimshai [08124] the scribe [05613], and to the rest [07606] of their companions [03675] that dwell [03488] in Samaria [08115], and unto the rest [07606] beyond [05675] the river [05103], Peace [08001], and at such a time [03706].

¹⁴ And the elders [07868] of the Jews [03062] builded [01124], and they prospered [06744] through the prophesying [05017] of Haggai [02292] the prophet [05029] and Zechariah [02148] the son [01247] of Iddo [05714]. And they builded [01124], and finished [03635] it, according [04481] to the commandment [02941] of the God [0426] of Israel [03479], and according to the commandment [02942] of Cyrus [03567], and Darius [01868], and Artaxerxes [0783] king [04430] of Persia [06540].

¹ So the king [04428] and Haman [02001] came [0935] to banquet [08354] with Esther [0635] the queen [04436].
² And the king [04428] said [0559] again unto Esther [0635] on the second [08145] day [03117] at the banquet [04960] of wine [03196], What is thy petition [07596], queen [04436] Esther [0635]? and it shall be granted [05414] thee: and what is thy request [01246]? and it shall be performed [06213], even to the half [02677] of the kingdom [04438].
³ Then Esther [0635] the queen [04436] answered [06030] and said [0559], If I have found [04672] favour [02580] in thy sight [05869], O king [04428], and if it please [02895] the king [04428], let my life [05315] be given [05414] me at my petition [07596], and my people [05971] at my request [01246]:
⁴ For we are sold [04376], I and my people [05971], to be destroyed [08045], to be slain [02026], and to perish [06]. But if [0432] we had been sold [04376] for bondmen [05650] and bondwomen [08198], I had held my tongue [02790], although the enemy [06862] could not countervail [07737] the king's [04428] damage [05143].
⁵ Then the king [04428] Ahasuerus [0325] answered [0559] and said [0559] unto Esther [0635] the queen [04436], Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume [04390] in his heart [03820] to do [06213] so?
⁶ And Esther [0635] said [0559], The adversary [0376] [06862] and enemy [0341] is this wicked [07451] Haman [02001]. Then Haman [02001] was afraid [01204] before [06440] the king [04428] and the queen [04436].
⁷ And the king [04428] arising [06965] from the banquet [04960] of wine [03196] in his wrath [02534] went into the palace [01055] garden [01594]: and Haman [02001] stood up [05975] to make request [01245] for his life [05315] to Esther [0635] the queen [04436]; for he saw [07200] that there was evil [07451] determined [03615] against him by the king [04428].
⁸ Then the king [04428] returned [07725] out of the palace [01055] garden [01594] into the place [01004] of the banquet [04960] of wine [03196]; and Haman [02001] was fallen [05307] upon the bed [04296] whereon Esther [0635] was. Then said [0559] the king [04428], Will he force [03533] the queen [04436] also before me in the house [01004]? As the word [01697] went out [03318] of the king's [04428] mouth [06310], they covered [02645] Haman's [02001] face [06440].
⁹ And Harbonah [02726], one [0259] of the chamberlains [05631], said [0559] before [06440] the king [04428], Behold also, the gallows [06086] fifty [02572] cubits [0520] high [01364], which Haman [02001] had made [06213] for Mordecai [04782], who had spoken [01696] good [02896] for the king [04428], standeth [05975] in the house [01004] of Haman [02001]. Then the king [04428] said [0559], Hang [08518] him thereon.
¹⁰ So they hanged [08518] Haman [02001] on the gallows [06086] that he had prepared [03559] for Mordecai [04782]. Then was the king's [04428] wrath [02534] pacified [07918].

¹ In the first [0259] year [08141] of Darius [01867] the son [01121] of Ahasuerus [0325], of the seed [02233] of the Medes [04074], which was made king [04427] over the realm [04438] of the Chaldeans [03778];

¹² Be it [01934] known [03046] unto the king [04430], that the Jews [03062] which [01768] came up [05559] from [04481] thee [03890] to us [05922] are come [0858] unto Jerusalem [03390], building [01124] the rebellious [04779] and the bad [0873] city [07149], and have set up [03635] [03635] the walls [07792] thereof, and joined [02338] the foundations [0787].

¹¹ This [01836] is the copy [06573] of the letter [0104] that [01768] they sent [07972] unto him [05922], even unto Artaxerxes [0783] the king [04430]; Thy servants [05649] the men [0606] on this side [05675] the river [05103], and at such a time [03706].

¹ In the eighth [08066] month [02320], in the second [08147] year [08141] of Darius [01867], came the word [01697] of the LORD [03068] unto Zechariah [02148], the son [01121] of Berechiah [01296], the son [01121] of Iddo [05714] the prophet [05030], saying [0559],

¹ In the second [08147] year [08141] of Darius [01867] the king [04428], in the sixth [08345] month [02320], in the first [0259] day [03117] of the month [02320], came the word [01697] of the LORD [03068] by [03027] Haggai [02292] the prophet [05030] unto Zerubbabel [02216] the son [01121] of Shealtiel [07597], governor [06346] of Judah [03063], and to Joshua [03091] the son [01121] of Josedech [03087], the high [01419] priest [03548], saying [0559],