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1 Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the LORD God of Israel; 2 Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither. 3 But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the LORD God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us. 4 Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, 5 And hired counsellers against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. 6 And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, wrote they unto him an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. 7 And in the days of Artaxerxes wrote Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their companions, unto Artaxerxes king of Persia; and the writing of the letter was written in the Syrian tongue, and interpreted in the Syrian tongue. 8 Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king in this sort: 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, 10 And the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Asnappar brought over, and set in the cities of Samaria, and the rest that are on this side the river, and at such a time. 11 This is the copy of the letter that they sent unto him, even unto Artaxerxes the king; Thy servants the men on this side the river, and at such a time. 12 Be it known unto the king, that the Jews which came up from thee to us are come unto Jerusalem, building the rebellious and the bad city, and have set up the walls thereof, and joined the foundations. 13 Be it known now unto the king, that, if this city be builded, and the walls set up again, then will they not pay toll, tribute, and custom, and so thou shalt endamage the revenue of the kings. 14 Now because we have maintenance from the king's palace, and it was not meet for us to see the king's dishonour, therefore have we sent and certified the king; 15 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 destroyed. 16 We certify the king that, if this city be builded again, and the walls thereof set up, by this means thou shalt have no portion on this side the river. 17 Then sent the king an answer unto Rehum the chancellor, and to Shimshai the scribe, and to the rest of their companions that dwell in Samaria, and unto the rest beyond the river, Peace, and at such a time. 18 The letter which ye sent unto us hath been plainly read before me. 19 And I commanded, and search hath been made, and it is found that this city of old time hath made insurrection against kings, and that rebellion and sedition have been made therein. 20 There have been mighty kings also over Jerusalem, which have ruled over all countries beyond the river; and toll, tribute, and custom, was paid unto them. 21 Give ye now commandment to cause these men to cease, and that this city be not builded, until another commandment shall be given from me. 22 Take heed now that ye fail not to do this: why should damage grow to the hurt of the kings? 23 Now when the copy of king Artaxerxes' letter was read before Rehum, and Shimshai the scribe, and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem unto the Jews, and made them to cease by force and power. 24 Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
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[AD 735] Bede on Ezra 4:1
The enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard, etc. The history is known; because it speaks of the Samaritans, the enemies of Judah and Benjamin, whom the king of Assyria transported into their cities and lands from various nations of the ten tribes in captivity. These, after receiving the law of God, partially observed it, while still serving the same idols as before. These people, regarding the true worshipers of God with disdain, promised them help with the work, intending to bring about harm once accepted into partnership. It is clear to anyone that such people figuratively represent false brethren, that is, heretics and bad Catholics. They are enemies of Judah, that is, of confession and praise, which the Church offers to the Lord in the present through true faith and worthy works of faith. They are also enemies of Benjamin, that is, the sons of the right hand, while they segregate those who listen to them from the faithful people’s lot, who are to receive blessing and the eternal kingdom at the right hand of the Judge in the future. Such people say to Zerubbabel and the elders, “Let us build with you, for we seek your God like you do,” as heretics desire the same authority of preaching to be granted to them among Catholics, promising to hold and love the same true faith and actions as them, so that, having gained the power to teach amidst the good seed, from which the Apostle Paul derived the name to be called a ‘seed-speaker,’ that is, a seed-sower, they may intersperse the tares of secret doctrine. Some did this at the Council of Nicaea, who subscribed to the true faith among Catholic fathers with a non-Catholic mind; so that being more familiarly mixed with the faithful, they might more freely build a place for receiving the Arian perfidy. Likewise, Pelagius in the Palestinian Council anathematized his own heresy, by which he most fiercely attacked the grace of God, in confession and writing, not from the heart, lest he be anathematized himself by Catholic priests, and thus lose the place of teaching in the Church and the ability to sow his error. “Behold,” they say, “We offered sacrifices from the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought us here.” You offered sacrifices, but unclean ones because you did not renounce idols. For what fellowship has righteousness with iniquity? Or what communion has light with darkness? What agreement has Christ with Belial? (II Cor. VI). For you have entered the land of the sons of Israel, not introduced by Joshua, not subjected to the rule of Jerusalem, but brought into their land by a perfidious king, an enemy of the people of God, not to serve the Lord in this, but the same adversarial king. Thus, heretics and false Catholics, when they attack the peace of the Church, either by living perversely or also by teaching, are wholly alien to the kingdom of Jerusalem and belong to the lost lot of the Gentiles, whose sins they do not abandon; indeed, to speak more openly, such people, not led by the Lord Jesus but by the devil, of whose figure Esarhaddon king of Assyria held, enter into the borders of the holy Church. For what but the instigation of the devil leads someone to receive the sacraments of the Church, not so that they may sanctify themselves to God for healing, but so that consecrated to God, they may corrupt others out of familiarity, to be condemned more fiercely? Simon the Magician acted this way (Acts VIII), who received baptism in the Church, not out of zeal for his salvation but to know the Church's affairs more surely from proximity; which he demonstrated by his end, for he most severely troubled the Church not as a false brother but as an open enemy. It follows:

Source: Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah
[AD 735] Bede on Ezra 4:3
It is not for you or us to build a house for our God. Heretics are not to build the house of the Lord, which is the Church, from which they themselves are proved to be strangers; but only those who, adhering to Christ the true King and Priest, have deserved to be called the leaders of the fathers, due to the devout care which they have for those who desire to see God, which is the meaning of Israel.

Source: Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah
[AD 735] Bede on Ezra 4:4
Thus, it happened that the people of the land hindered them. He rightly calls those who disrupted the workers of the truth and tried to hinder the work of the Church the people of the land. But the people of Judah, that is, those confessing and glorifying Him who with a whole heart sought to build for the Lord God, sought to convert all minds and mouths they could to doing His will, to seeking His glory. How often have heretics not only in individual cities but also in entire provinces, either by perverse teaching or by hostile violence, impeded the doctrine of true confession, let us not know. For instance, let us remain silent about the teacher of the nations, who, bound for two years in Caesarea due to the persecution by the Jews (Acts 23), had his tongue restrained from the duty of building the house of God. Behold, through the snares of subsequent heretics, blessed Athanasius was exiled from his homeland for many years, Ambrose was besieged in his city, Hilary was relegated to exile, Eusebius suffered martyrdom; many bishops in Africa, having had their tongues cut out, were ejected from their province, others were tormented or killed by various punishments, the house of God, which they had built, was handed over to be profaned by the people of the land, that is, by men seeking their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ; until, at the divinely appointed time, there should again be a supply of wise architects to rebuild that house after the captivity; that is, until the Catholic Fathers were given the ability to restore the Church after the heresies had been discovered and overcome.

Source: Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah
[AD 735] Bede on Ezra 4:5
But they hired counselors against them, etc. The distinction of the words is noteworthy; because they indeed hired counselors against the builders of the temple with a price given, in order that their plan might be destroyed; yet he does not say that their plan was destroyed, nor that they ceased from their work, until the letter of accusation was written to Artaxerxes, and by his command, as the Scripture says, with arm and strength. For it follows there: Then the work of the house of God in Jerusalem was stopped, and it did not continue until the second year of Darius, king of Persia (I Esdr. IV). Whence it is gathered, that indeed during the whole time of Cyrus, they pursued the work, although more slowly than justly, but upon his death, not being hindered by wicked counsel, they were openly repelled from working. For the enemies did not dare, while Cyrus was still living, who had ordered that work to be done, to openly oppose, although covertly suggesting or counseling, to go against his decrees. The allegorical sense, however, is readily apparent: because heretics, as the opportunity of the time permits, now pursue the Church with the counsel of wicked doctrines, now with the more bitter fight of swords, and sometimes even do not fear to harass it with the support of gentile rulers. For they impede the hands of the people of Judah, when they delay the Church in its weaker members from the works of pious profession. They strive to destroy the plan of working when they also endeavor to divert their spirits from the very intention of good action. They accuse them to kings, when they also seek the protections of earthly rulers against the Church. How much this harms the faith became as clear as light during the time of the Arian perfidy.

Source: Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah
[AD 735] Bede on Ezra 4:6
In the year of the reign of Ahasuerus... they wrote an accusation, etc. Josephus (Antiquities XI, 2, 3) believes that this Artaxerxes, who received the letter of accusation from the Samaritans and forbade the construction of Jerusalem and the temple, was Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, who, after his father ruled for thirty years, reigned himself for eight years; and after him, the Magi ruled for one year, then Darius, the son of Hystaspes, succeeded to the throne. In his second year, the angel permitted the temple to be built, saying through Zechariah the prophet, interceding for the people: Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry? This is the seventieth year (Zech. I). As for Ahasuerus, to whom it is said the letter of accusation was equally sent, it is perhaps silent on whether he replied or responded because either he died in the same year he began to reign, leaving the rule and these matters to Artaxerxes; or he was indeed contemporary with Artaxerxes but, being of lesser power, allowed him to handle and decide these things more.

Source: Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah
[AD 1781] Richard Challoner on Ezra 4:6
Assuerus: Otherwise called Cambyses the son and successor of Cyrus. He is also in the following verse named Artaxerxes, a name common to almost all the kings of Persia.
[AD 735] Bede on Ezra 4:11
This is a copy of the letter, etc. Artaxerxes, who is persuaded, and who, being persuaded, commanded that Jerusalem should not be built, holds the figure either of some pagan ruler, certainly an enemy and persecutor of the Church, or of the ancient enemy of all good things, and adversary of the Jews, who accused the ecclesiastical men before the king: the Samaritans, who accused, always represent heretics. Hence, they call Jerusalem, with suitable expression, a rebellious and wicked city. For such do the heretics judge the Catholic unity which they attack. In truth, however, it is rebellious and constructs its walls and walls of the right faith with the stones of celestial testimonies against the weapons of attacking errors, of which Isaiah says: "And salvation will occupy our walls, and praise your gates" (Isaiah 60). But it should not be called wicked, except only by those who are completely averse from the best opinion. Among which it should be noted that from that time, the people of God began to be counted by the name of the Jews, because those who first ascended from captivity and restored the walls of the city of Jerusalem and the work of the temple, and possessed the province emptied of inhabitants, having again defeated the enemies who held the neighboring places, were chiefly from the tribe of Judah.

Source: Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah
[AD 735] Bede on Ezra 4:12
Now, therefore, let it be known to the king, etc., thanks be to God, that the enemies of the city of the Lord, which is the Church, confess the truth about that city; for if it were built after captivity and its walls made of living stones, that is, holy souls, raised against the arrogance of this world, the citizens of that city, that is, the people of the elect, will not give further tribute of hateful servitude by sinning to malignant spirits. Rather, the building of piety will harm the princes of the power of this air, as more of those who, through the washing of regeneration, are taken away daily from the kingdom of the devil, having been born into the service of that kingdom due to the guilt of the first transgression; who, by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, no longer pay unjust tribute to the enemy, but justly offer proper tribute of due servitude to their Creator, and return to the giver of gifts, from whom they received, by living well and giving thanks, the annual dues of their firstfruits and tithes, which are done through the beginning and perfection of good works.

Source: Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah
[AD 735] Bede on Ezra 4:14
We, therefore, mindful of the salt which we have eaten in the palace, etc. The Samaritans eat salt in the palace, when heretics are educated with the flavor of worldly philosophy, with the sweetness of rhetoric, and with the cleverness of dialectical art. They also consider it impious to see the king's injuries completed, when they cannot endure if anyone tries to attack the kingdom of the devil with pious faith or action, and they fear wars stirred up in the Church, lest their heresies and deceptions, along with the doctrines of the Gentiles, are defeated by its defenders, led undoubtedly by Him who said: "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Matthew 10). And again: "I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled" (Luke 12)? Namely, the sword of His word, with which He strikes down adversaries; and the fire of charity, with which, by kindling the hearts of His own, He burns away all the arms and shields of the opposing faction.

Source: Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah
[AD 735] Bede on Ezra 4:16
We announce to the king, that if that city is built, etc. He names the Euphrates river, within which is Syria. Which rightly indicates the stream of holy baptism, either because it is one of the four rivers which, rising from one source in paradise, irrigate the whole world; indeed in the figure of the four evangelists, who, inspired by the one source of life, that is, the Lord Savior, proclaim with a harmonious voice to all nations the washing of salvation; or because Euphrates is interpreted as fruitful; which name most aptly fits that sacrament by which the world, washed and sanctified, customarily brings forth the fruit of souls thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold to God. Therefore, the king of the Persians, who are interpreted as tempters, seeks possession beyond the river, when the ancient enemy, by stirring up the incursions of temptations, tries to break into the boundaries of the Church, and to subjugate to himself even those who are redeemed by the sacred font. The Samaritans help him, as heretics who attack the Church fight for the kingdom of the devil, and as if they are said to be grieving: Because if that city is built, and its walls restored, through true faith and the religious works of the righteous, he will not be able to have possession and place beyond the river, that is, in the hearts of those who are already reborn to God through baptism. They are also understood who do not understand the true faith, that one and the same mind cannot be possessed by light and darkness, iniquity and justice, Christ and Belial.

Source: Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah
[AD 735] Bede on Ezra 4:17-24
The Jews said, “This temple was built in forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” They answered as they understood. But lest we too should perceive our Lord’s spiritual word in a carnal way, the Evangelist subsequently explained what temple it was of which he was speaking. As for their stating that the temple was built in forty-six years, they meant not its first but its second building. For Solomon, the first [builder], finished the temple very rapidly within seven years, during a time of great peace in his kingdom. It was destroyed by the Chaldeans, but after seventy years it began to be rebuilt, at the bidding of Cyrus the Persian, when the captivity was lightened. But the descendants of those who were deported were unable to finish the work that they were doing under the rulers Zerubbabel and Jeshua before forty-six years had passed, on account of the resistance of the neighboring nations.This number [forty-six] of years is also most apt for the perfecting of our Lord’s physical body. Writers on natural history tell us that the form of the human body is completed within this number of days. During the first six days after conception it has a likeness to milk; during the following nine days it is changed into blood; next, in twelve days, it becomes solid; during the remaining eighteen days it is formed into the perfect features of all its members; and after this, during the time remaining until birth, it increases in size. Six plus nine plus twelve plus eighteen makes forty-five. If to this we add one, that is, the day on which the body, divided into its separate members, begins to grow, we find the same number of days in the building up of our Lord’s body as there were years in the construction of the temple.

Source: Homilies on the Gospels 2.1
[AD 735] Bede on Ezra 4:17
The king sent word to Rehum the commander and to Shimshai the scribe, etc. The sense of the letter is clear, and so is the allegory; because the profane king, namely the ancient adversary, most gladly supports the wishes of those who persecute the Church, and prohibit it from being built. But the enemies of Jerusalem dwell in Samaria, which is interpreted as guardian; not because they can in any way keep the precepts of faith and truth, who are proven by obstinate mind to oppose the true vision of peace, but because they themselves boast that the custody of virtues remains with them when they fight against the walls of peace through heresy.

Source: Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah
[AD 735] Bede on Ezra 4:23
Therefore, the example of the decree of King Artaxerxes was read, etc. Moreover, the sequence of history is clear, that the enemies of the people of God first obstructed the holy work by persecution, then attempted to dissipate the plan of their righteous intention with wicked counsels, and yet they were not able to entirely withdraw them from the work of the house of the Lord until, fortified by royal assistance, they opposed them with public authority. Notable is their deceit in accusing, as they complained that those who were building the house of God were constructing a city against the kingdom of the Persians; and with the king commanding that the city should not be built, they immediately, having received the authority of the royal letters, resisted the rebuilding of the temple with harmful power; although they had only accused them of building the city, not of constructing the temple, and the king had only prohibited the city from being built.

Source: Commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah