Ezra 4:9
Then wrote Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their companions; the Dinaites, the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Susanchites, the Dehavites, and the Elamites,
The verse names Rehum the chancellor, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their companions as the writers and senders of the letter of complaint against the Jews, listing the peoples joined with them in opposition. Those peoples were foreigners settled by Assyrian kings in Israel and Samaria after the captivity of the ten tribes, whose descendants became the mixed, semi-idolatrous Samaritans surrounding the returned Jews as hostile enemies. By misrepresentation they persuaded the Persian king after Cyrus to forbid the work, and went to Jerusalem and stopped it by force until the second year of Darius. The record of this opposition shows that the decrees of Cyrus and Darius are not the commandment that begins the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24, whose true beginning is the decree of Artaxerxes recorded in Ezra 7. The refusal of Zerubbabel and the leaders to accept their offer of help teaches that the church must keep its work distinct from the world's support, and the Persian order to stop was no proof that God wanted the duty abandoned.
Writers and Historical Background
The verse names Rehum the chancellor, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their companions as the senders and writers of the letter of complaint against the Jews, and lists the peoples represented among those opponents. Those neighboring peoples and officials joined together in writing against the temple work, and their complaint led to a Persian order to stop the rebuilding and to a temporary halt enforced by force at Jerusalem until Cyrus's decree was found and the work was allowed to continue. The listed peoples were part of that mixed population that resisted the rebuilding of the temple after the return from Babylonian captivity.
They were foreign peoples whom Assyrian kings settled in the land of Israel and in the cities of Samaria after the captivity of the ten tribes. They were heathen who only partly professed to fear Jehovah, and their descendants became the mixed, semi-idolatrous Samaritans with corrupt worship. As such they surrounded the returned Jews as hostile enemies to the north when they rebuilt the altar, with hostile Edomites to the southeast. Additional peoples were brought to Samaria later by Esar-haddon, increasing that mixed population and corrupt worship. The Elamites in the list were brought over and settled in the cities of Samaria by the great and noble Asnapper, who is Assur-bani-pal king of Assyria.
Asnapper devastated the land of Elam, laid waste its districts, captured its kings' families, governors, citizens and army, and carried off people male and female with horses, mules, cattle and much spoil to Assyria. He swept Elam to its utmost extent bare of men and livestock. This removal expressed the Assyrian idea of conquest, to destroy national power and prevent future trouble from national aspirations.
The verse belongs to the account of the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin who resisted Zerubbabel, Jeshua or Joshua, and Ezra in rebuilding the altar and temple after the return from Babylonian captivity, acting in the name of the king of Persia. Their opposition helped kindle hatred between Samaritans and Jews.
Opposition Halts Rebuilding Work
After the return from Babylonian captivity in B.C. 535, the mixed peoples of Samaria proposed to join Zerubbabel and Jeshua in rebuilding the temple and re-establishing the worship of God, and when refused any participation or compromise in the building they began an unquenched and ever more bitter enmity. Refused cooperation, the adversaries worked to hinder the building by hiring counselors against the Jews at the Persian court through all the time of Cyrus and Cambyses without success. They also wrote to Cambyses, the Ahasuerus of Esther, slandering the Jews, and the Jews became discouraged in building.
They then sent a formal extended accusation through Rehum the chancellor, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their companions, with the peoples listed with them, to stop the work on the temple at Jerusalem. The Artaxerxes to whom the letter went is the impostor Smerdis the Magian, also called Gomates, the false Smerdis and pseudo-Smerdis, who gained the throne by fraud, reigned for seven months, and may have borne the name Artaxerxes. He acted in B.C. 522, was killed in 522 B.C., and was succeeded by Darius in 521 B.C. Through misrepresentations the opponents persuaded the Persian king after Cyrus's death to issue a decree absolutely forbidding prosecution of the work. Rehum, Shimshai and their companions then went to Jerusalem and by force halted it, so the work on the temple and Jerusalem ceased until the second year of Darius Hystaspes in B.C. 520, about two years later and fifteen years after the foundation was laid.
The rebuilding took place in the same period as Haggai's messages, and when Haggai and Zechariah stirred the Jews to build again the adversaries at once opposed them again. Their complaint had led to a temporary halt, but a search of the royal records found Cyrus's decree and confirmed Israel's claim that the work had been authorized. A new governor's honest account then brought from Darius a decree not only to let the work go on but to help it speedily with money from the king's tribute and with bullocks, rams, and lambs, wheat, salt, wine, and oil, all that was needed at Jerusalem, reversing the usurper's action.
Prophecy Doctrine and Lessons
The letter and decree against the Jews recorded in Ezra 4:7-22 was issued by the pseudo-Smerdis, who reigned seven months and may have borne the name Artaxerxes, and that action is why he is noted in prophecy. The record of the decrees of Cyrus and Darius connected with this opposition shows those earlier decrees are not the commandment that begins the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24, and the true beginning date is the decree of Artaxerxes recorded in Ezra 7.
The refusal of Zerubbabel and the leaders of Israel to accept the offer of help from the descendants of the foreign peoples settled in the land illustrates the need to keep the church's work distinct from the world's support, even when that means facing greater opposition. Those adversaries who sought to hinder Zerubbabel and Joshua were enemies of the Jews, and their opposition is part of the background to the threat that those who had held the Jews as servants would themselves be held in the same way. Their powerful opposition to the temple-building work, together with the people's poverty and feeble resources, made completing the temple seem impossible, but God could carry out the work despite that weakness. The troubles the Jews faced while rebuilding made God's promise of peace and safety for Jerusalem seem marvelous, though God was able to fulfill it.
Though surrounded by hostile enemies while rebuilding the altar, with mixed races and semi-idolatrous Samaritans to the north and hostile Edomites to the southeast, the Jews did not first fortify themselves nor make a covenant with the peoples about them but put God first by building the altar of the God of Israel. Those opposing Samaritans were descendants of peoples brought into Palestine by the Assyrian king during Israel's captivity, who opposed the Jews under Zerubbabel and Ezra, and their opposition helped kindle hatred and foster hostility between them and the Jews.
The neighboring peoples and officials who joined in writing against the temple work obtained a Persian order to stop the rebuilding, but that obstacle was not proof that God wanted the Jews to abandon their duty. That royal order obtained by slander to the Persian king was not a good reason to stop, because the Jews could have written to the king to contradict the slander, and because no earthly monarch can prevent work God favors. After the royal decree stopped the work the Israelites became discouraged and turned to their own interests, but after Haggai and Zechariah called them back to God's work the opposition continued, a search of the royal records confirmed Israel's claim that the work had been authorized, and the king renewed the decree. Their readiness to stop also came from greater interest in building their own beautiful houses and cultivating their fields and vineyards, and God showed the reasons were not sufficient in his sight by sending Haggai to reprove them and by allowing drought and pestilence to teach his displeasure that his house lay in ruins while their own homes were luxuriously finished.