American Standard Version of 1901
Versliste
Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity were building a temple unto Jehovah, the God of Israel;
then they drew near to Zerubabbel, and to the heads of fathers' houses, and said unto them, Let us build with you; for we seek your God, as ye do; {Another reading is, yet we do not sacrifice since &c.}and we sacrifice unto him since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assyria, who brought us up hither.
But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us in building a house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto Jehovah, the God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us.
Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and {Or, terrified}troubled them in building,
and hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
And no marvel; for even Satan fashioneth himself into an angel of light.
Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,
In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away unto Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
And it was so, because the children of Israel had sinned against Jehovah their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,
and walked in the statutes of the nations, whom Jehovah cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they {Or, practised}made.
So these nations feared Jehovah, and served their graven images; their children likewise, and their children's children, as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, fashioning themselves into apostles of Christ.
I know thy works, and thy toil and {Or, stedfastness}patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them that call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false;
A Psalm of Asaph.The Mighty One, God, Jehovah, hath spoken,And called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,God hath shined forth.
Our God cometh, and doth not keep silence:A fire devoureth before him,And it is very tempestuous round about him.
He calleth to the heavens above,And to the earth, that he may judge his people:
Gather my saints together unto me,Those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.
And the heavens {Or, declare}shall declare his righteousness;For God is judge himself. [Selah
Hear, O my people, and I will speak;O Israel, and I will testify {Or, against}unto thee:I am God, even thy God.
I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; {Or, Not for thy burnt-offerings, which are &c.}And thy burnt-offerings are continually before me.
I will take no bullock out of thy house,Nor he-goats out of thy folds.
For every beast of the forest is mine,And the cattle {Or, upon the mountains where thousands are}upon a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the mountains;And the wild beasts of the field are {Or, in my mind Hebrew: with me.}mine.
If I were hungry, I would not tell thee;For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.
Will I eat the flesh of bulls,Or drink the blood of goats?
Offer unto God the sacrifice of thanksgiving;And pay thy vows unto the Most High;
And call upon me in the day of trouble:I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
But unto the wicked God saith,What hast thou to do to declare my statutes,And that thou hast taken my covenant in thy mouth,
Seeing thou hatest {Or, correction}instruction,And castest my words behind thee?
When thou sawest a thief, thou consentedst with him,And {Hebrew: thy portion was with adulterers.}hast been partaker with adulterers.
Thou givest thy mouth to evil,And thy tongue frameth deceit.
Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother;Thou {Or, givest a thrust against}slanderest thine own mother's son.
These things hast thou done, and I kept silence;Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself:But I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.
Now consider this, ye that forget God,Lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver:
Whoso offereth the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifieth me;And {Or, prepareth a way that I may show him}to him that ordereth his way arightWill I show the salvation of God.
But unto the wicked God saith,What hast thou to do to declare my statutes,And that thou hast taken my covenant in thy mouth,
And in the reign of {Or, Xerxes Hebrew: Ahashrerosh.}Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, wrote they an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
And in the days of {Hebrew: Artahshashta.}Artaxerxes wrote Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his companions, unto Artaxerxes king of Persia; and the writing of the letter was written in the {Or, Aramaic.}Syrian character, and set forth in the {Or, Aramaic.}Syrian tongue.
{Chapter 4:8-6, 18 is in Aramaic.}Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king in this sort:
then wrote Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their companions, the Dinaites, and the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Shushanchites, the Dehaites, the Elamites,
and the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Osnappar brought over, and set in the city of Samaria, and in the rest of the country beyond the River, and so forth.
This is the copy of the letter that they sent unto Artaxerxes the king: Thy servants the men beyond the River, and so forth.
Be it known unto the king, that the Jews that came up from thee are come to us unto Jerusalem; they are building the rebellious and the bad city, and have finished the walls, and repaired the foundations.
Be it known now unto the king, that, if this city be builded, and the walls finished, they will not pay tribute, custom, or toll, and in the end it will be hurtful unto the kings.
Now because we eat the salt of the palace, and it is not meet for us to see the king's dishonor, therefore have we sent and certified the king;
that search may be made in the book of the records of thy fathers: so shalt thou find in the book of the records, and know that this city is a rebellious city, and hurtful unto kings and provinces, and that they have moved sedition within the same of old time; for which cause was this city laid waste.
We certify the king that, if this city be builded, and the walls finished, by this means thou shalt have no portion beyond the River.
The kings of the earth set themselves,And the rulers take counsel together,Against Jehovah, and against his anointed, saying,
And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day: for before they were at enmity between themselves.
They therefore cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him! Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Cæsar.