Chapter 4

1 Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the LORD, the God of Israel, 2 they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers' houses and said to them, "Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here." [Ezr 4:1-2 ESV]

This clearly says that those who offered to help were adversaries.  I think, from earlier reading, that they were indeed sacrificing to God, but how many rules were they breaking sacrificing in the wrong places, on the wrong altars, and likely concurrent with sacrifices to the gods of the Assyrians, and other surrounding countries.  They may have been sincere in their efforts, but oh so wrong in reality.  Might make a FB post of this.  Would want to find some verses about the other gods they were sacrificing to.  Some bad ones I am sure if they came from the Assyrians.

2024 - Remember when Assyria first resettled the north there was a lot of trouble because God was not being worshiped in the land, so Assyria sent them a priest to teach them to sacrifice to God.  Here are those verses:

26 So the king of Assyria was told, "The nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land." 27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, "Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there, and let him go and dwell there and teach them the law of the god of the land." 28 So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the LORD. [2Ki 17:26-28 ESV].  Couple more...

26 So the king of Assyria was told, "The nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land." ... 29 But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived. ... 33 So they feared the LORD but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away. [2Ki 17:26, 29, 33 ESV]

And indeed they began to make sacrifices to God, but they absolutely continued to worship the gods they brought with them also.  So they were worshiping...but they did not recognize God as the One True God.  These were mostly NOT even Jews who had been worshiping in the north for so long.  Lessons?  If you worship God in just whatever way  you care to worship, and do not give him exclusive devotion, you remain an adversary of God.  You can't just do whatever you care to, even to the point of worshiping many gods to make sure your bases are covered, and expect God to honor that.  He requires true and exclusive worship. 

I noticed this verse in 2020:

6 And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. [Ezr 4:6 ESV]  This is the King in the book of Esther.  So this certainly puts Ezra and Esther concurrent in time.

Zerubbabel and the other Jewish leaders rebuffed the above offer of help.  When they did, these other nations conspired against the Jews, perhaps threatened those who worked on the temple, destroyed their crops, made it hard for them to spend time building instead of protecting their own families, mitigated suppliers to keep materials from arriving, or to raise prices beyond reason.  In short, they caused all kinds of trouble, they surrounded Israel so there was no "free" supply line, they did this through the entire reign of Cyrus, until Darius was king.  (Remember, Darius was a title - in this case perhaps both title and name - and in Daniel, it appears that Cyrus was addressed as Darius.)

Further on, in the reign of Ahasuerus, the opponents of Jerusalem sent a letter to this king, accusing the Jews of various things.  This Ahasuerus is the king in the book of Esther, and perhaps this letter of accusation, along with the actions of Haman in response to it, is tied in right here.

Then in vs 7, we get to Artaxerxes.  Wish the order was explained better, but it looks to me like Cyrus II, Darius I, Ahasuerus/Xerxes I, and Artaxerxes I.  Some MSB notes:  Beginning in vs 6, we go on a "parenthetical flashback" recounting continuing and ongoing harassment of those trying to rebuild the temple.  Ahasuerus and Xerxes are the same guy apparently (YES).  Ahasuerus is a title, not a name.  It was Xerxes title.  This was during the time of Esther, 486-64 BC.  Then from 7-23, we learn about opposition to Nehemiah during the reign of Artaxerxes I (434-423 BC).  So this about Artaxerxes is the flashback part.  Then in vs 24, we pick up again in the "current" reign of Darius I, which is actually before either Ahasuerus or Artaxerxes.  Found this though....

....And this, though it is a little small....https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/93/Achaemenid_lineage.jpg/220px-Achaemenid_lineage.jpg

These help a lot with the timelines.

So at any rate, we now know where we are. 

A big deal is made in TCR footnotes that from 4:8 to 6:18 was written in Aramaic - the "formal" language of the time.  MSB says there were two different letters, one in Aramaic, and so an official document, and the other just a letter. 

Vss 8-10 tell us who is writing the letter.  Many officials of Samaria are there.  I note that they say they are descended from those that Osnapper deported and settled in the cities of Samaria.  So they are saying that they are NOT of these rebellious and  unruly Jews, but were settled here after the Assyrians conquered Samaria.  This too would be a reason for the Jews in Jesus' time to be distrustful of the Samaritans.  It was truly a big deal when Jesus talked to the woman at the well.  Found a note that says Osnapper is most often identified as Ashurbanipal.  It makes it hard when the King's titles and names are used interchangeably.  Also, it makes it difficult to be absolutely positive which King we are talking about. 

vs 11 starts with "(This is a copy of the letter that they sent).  So this letter was likely in the royal library, or some kind of royal document area, that Ezra had access to since he was a scribe and apparently in high standing.  They accuse the Jews in Jerusalem of not only rebuilding the temple, but also the walls of the city.  It also anticipates that if they complete this work, they will stop paying their taxes, and impair the royal income of the king.  They urge the king to look in the records at the history of this city, Jerusalem, and say he will so learn that it is an historically rebellious city, and that this attribute is what led to its being "laid waste" in the first place.  The letter writers also point out how very loyal they are to the king.

(All of this is very likely the beginning of the deeply held animosity between Samaria and Judah that is extant in Jesus' time.  The Jews were freed after 70 years in captivity, and the Samaritans did all they could to undermine and eliminate them.  So an ancient feud.) 

The king is convinced by this letter, and replies by letter with a decree that the building going on must stop, until he says different.  With this letter in hand, the conspiratorial Samaritan's run off to Jerusalem, and use force to stop the work going on.  Force was authorized here:

22 And take care not to be slack in this matter. Why should damage grow to the hurt of the king?" [Ezr 4:22 ESV]

This successfully shut down the work until the second year of Darius, King of Persia. MSB says this was a 16 year work stoppage, from 536-20 BC.