Their enemies opposed rebuilding the temple

4 The enemies of the people of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin heard that the Israeli people who had returned from Babylonia were rebuilding a temple for Yahweh, the God whom the Israeli people worshiped. 2 So they went to Zerubbabel the governor and the other leaders, and said deceptively, “We want to help you build the temple, because we worship that same God whom you worship, and we have been offering sacrifices to him since Esarhaddon, the King of Assyria, brought us here.”

3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the other Israeli leaders replied, “We will not allow you to help us build a temple for our(exc) God. We will build it ◄ourselves/without your help► for Yahweh, the God whom we Israelis worship, like Cyrus, the King of Persia, told us to do.”

4 Then the people who had been living in that land before the Israelis returned tried to cause the Jews to become discouraged and become afraid, and to cause them to stop building the temple. 5 They bribed government officials to oppose what the Israelis were doing and prevent them from continuing to work on the temple. They did that all during the time that Cyrus was King of Persia. They continued to do it when Darius became the King of Persia.