4 Now the enemies of Yehudah and Benyamin heard that the Israelis who’d come back from exile were building a temple for Yisrael’s God Yahweh. 2 so they went to Zerubavel and to the other clan leaders and they said to them, “Let us help you with the building work, because like you, we worship your God and we’ve been sacrificing to him since the days of the Assyrian king Esar-Haddon—the one who sent us here.”[ref]

3 But Zerubavel, and Yeshua, and the rest of the Israelis clan leaders said to them, “It’s not for you and for us to build a house for our God, but we ourselves together will build for Yisrael’s God Yahweh, just as the Persian King Koresh (Cyrus) has commanded us.”

4 Those local people had been discouraging the people of Yehudah and trying to stop them from building. 5 They’d also hired influencers to work against them throughout the reigns of the Persian kings Koresh (Cyrus) and Dareyavesh (Darius).