Ezra 4:1-5 - Resistance To Rebuilding The House Of God

¹ Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity built the temple unto the LORD God of Israel; ² Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the heads of the fathers' houses, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as you do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.

³ But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of the fathers' houses of Israel, said unto them, You have nothing to do with us to build a house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the LORD God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us. ⁴ Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, ⁵ And hired counselors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.