Ezra 4:1-5
Adversaries Discourage the Work
4Then athe adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that bthe people of the exile were building a temple to Yahweh, the God of Israel, 2so 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.” 3But 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.”