Artaxerxes’s Reply

¹⁷ The king sent a reply to his chief officer Rehum, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their colleagues living in Samaria and elsewhere in the region west of the River Euphrates:

Greetings.

²³ As soon as the text of King Artaxerxes’s letter was read to Rehum, Shimshai the scribe, and their colleagues,^(A) they immediately went to the Jews in Jerusalem and forcibly stopped them.

Rebuilding of the Temple Resumed

²⁴ Now the construction of God’s house in Jerusalem had stopped and remained at a standstill until the second year of the reign of King Darius of Persia.^(B)