Ezra 4:1-6 King James Version (KJV)
4 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 Esarhaddon 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 counsellors 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.

Ezra 4:1-6 Amplified Bible (AMP)
4 Now when [the Samaritans] the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles from the captivity were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel,
2 They came to Zerubbabel [now governor] and to the heads of the fathers’ houses and said, Let us build with you, for we seek and worship your God as you do, and we have sacrificed to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.
3 But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses of Israel said to them, You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.
4 Then [the Samaritans] the people of the land [continually] weakened the hands of the people of Judah and troubled and terrified them in building
5 And hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose and plans all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius [II] king of Persia.
6 And in the reign of Ahasuerus [or Xerxes], in the beginning of his reign, [the Samaritans] wrote to him an accusation against the [returned] inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

Amplified Bible (AMP) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation


These are my thoughts, please share yours.

1 These may have been their own people because they seemed like they had a part in building the temple as if the temple was for them which meant they were Jewish. When we do anything in the name of the Lord we will have people who are against us.

2 We have to stand up against those who are trying to stand in our way and keep us from serving the Lord; their motives may seem good though.

3 Sometimes we need to let people know that we do not need their help but ever do this out of disrespect, if their motives are pure they will understand even though they may not be happy with it.

4 These people discouraged them, if they would have helped they may have undid work that had already been done. We will face people who try to discourage us, if we are doing anything good in the name of the Lord people will stand against us and try to stop us; sometimes people who are most discouraging are the ones who seemed to be the most behind us.

5 They used any means to stop them, people in the start of the early church would be killed for what spreading the gospel but this would not stop it, we should not be like these men and let us serving the Lord stop because of them.

6 People may accuse us of things, people may spread lies about us, and we should not allow this slander to effect how we serve the Lord or effect that we are.