Ezra 4:4

Resistance To Rebuilding The House Of God

³ But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of families in Israel said to them: You have no part with us in the building of a house for our God. We will do the work for Jehovah, the God of Israel, as Cyrus, king of Persia, has given us orders. ⁴ Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah, and frightened them from building, ⁵ They hired men to work against them and kept them from accomplishing their plans during the reign of Cyrus, king of Persia, till Darius became king.

People of the Land

Ezra

Judah

Non

Samaritans

Ezra 3:3

The returning exiles were afraid of the people who were living in the land. Regardless of that, they rebuilt the altar where it had stood before. Then they began once again to burn on it the regular morning and evening sacrifices.

Nehemiah 4:7-8

When the Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites, heard that the building of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and the broken places were being made good, they were very angry.

Nehemiah 4:11

And our adversaries kept saying: They will not know and they will not see until we come right in among them and put them to death. We will cause the work to cease.

Nehemiah 6:9

They hoped to put fear in us, saying: Their hands will become feeble and give up the work so that it may not get done. But now, O God, make my hands strong.

Isaiah 35:3-4

Strengthen the tired hands and the knees that tremble with weakness.

Jeremiah 38:4

The officials went to the king and said: This man must be put to death. By talking like this he is making the soldiers in the city lose their courage. He is doing the same thing to everyone else left in the city. He is not trying to help the people. He only wants to hurt them.