Ezra 4:22-24

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²² Moreover, take care not to be slack in this matter; why should damage grow to the hurt of the king?”

²³ Then when the copy of King Artaxerxes’s letter was read before Rehum and the scribe Shimshai and their associates, they hurried to the Jews in Jerusalem and by force and power made them cease. ²⁴ At that time the work on the house of God in Jerusalem stopped and was discontinued until the second year of the reign of King Darius of Persia.