7 Also, in the days of Ar·ta·xerxʹes, Bishʹlam, Mithʹre·dath, Tabʹe·el and the rest of his colleagues wrote to Ar·ta·xerxʹes the king of Persia, and the writing of the letter was written in Ar·a·maʹic characters and translated into the Ar·a·maʹic+ language.

23 Now after the copy of the official document of Ar·ta·xerxʹes the king had been read before Reʹhum+ and Shimʹshai+ the scribe and their colleagues,+ they went in a hurry to Jerusalem to the Jews and stopped them by force of arms.*+

7* Now it came about that, as soon as San·balʹlat+ and To·biʹah+ and the Arabians+ and the Amʹmon·ites+ and the Ashʹdod·ites+ heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem had gone forward, for the gaps had started to be stopped up, they became very angry.

11 Moreover, our adversaries kept saying: “They will not know+ and they will not see until we come right in among them, and we shall certainly kill them and put a stop to the work.”