1. Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel;
2. they came near to Zerubbabel, and to the heads of fathers’ households, and said to them, “Let us build with you; for we seek your God, as you do; and we have been sacrificing to him since the days of Esar Haddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.”