23 Therefore, I issued orders to prevent these people from rebuilding the city
24 and to take care in advance that nothing more be done and that such wicked designs go no further to upset the kings.
25 After King Artaxerxes’ letter was read, Rehum and the scribe Shimshai and their associates marched on Jerusalem immediately, with cavalry and a large group of armed troops, in order to stop the builders.
26 So the building of the temple in Jerusalem ceased until the second year of the rule of Persia’s King Darius.