Commentary - Ezra 4:7-16

Bird's-eye view

This section of Ezra details the first successful attempt by the enemies of Judah to halt the work of rebuilding in Jerusalem. Having been rebuffed in their disingenuous offer to "help," the adversaries pivot to a new strategy: political slander. The weapon of choice is a letter, a piece of official correspondence sent to the Persian king Artaxerxes, dripping with feigned loyalty and calculated falsehoods. This is bureaucratic warfare. The letter is a masterclass in propaganda, twisting the Jews' faithful work of rebuilding the temple into a seditious plot to rebuild a fortress and rebel against the empire. The adversaries wrap their envy and hatred for God's people in the respectable cloak of concern for the king's revenue and regional stability. It is a classic example of how the seed of the serpent operates, not always with open violence, but often through lies, manipulation, and the corridors of power. The result is a royal decree that brings the work of God to a standstill, a temporary victory for the enemy that serves to test the faith of the returned exiles.

The core of the passage is the letter itself, which accuses the Jews of rebuilding a "rebellious and evil city." The accusers shrewdly appeal to the king's self-interest, warning of financial loss and the erosion of his authority. They prompt him to check the historical records, confident that Judah's past rebellions against foreign empires will poison the king's mind against their current, God-honoring project. This is a potent reminder that the work of God's kingdom will always face opposition from a world that resents its claims and fears its progress. It is a spiritual conflict fought with carnal weapons like deceit, political maneuvering, and slander.

Outline

Context In Ezra

This passage occurs after the initial return from exile under Zerubbabel and the laying of the temple foundation. Chapter 4 functions as a thematic summary of the opposition the Jews faced, stretching over a long period and involving several Persian kings. The events described in our text (vv. 7-23) actually occur chronologically after the events of chapter 5 and much of chapter 6. Ezra arranges his material here not by strict chronology, but by theme, in order to show his readers the persistent and unvarying nature of the opposition. He wants us to see that from the moment the foundation was laid (Ezra 3:10-13), the enemies of God began their work. This letter to Artaxerxes is the centerpiece of that argument, demonstrating the tactics the world uses to try and thwart the purposes of God. It sets the stage for the prophetic ministry of Haggai and Zechariah, who would later be sent by God to rouse the people from the discouragement caused by this very opposition.

Key Issues

The Tattletale's Veto

When the enemies of God's people cannot stop the work through infiltration or intimidation, they frequently resort to the tattletale's veto. They run to the authorities, to the powers that be, and present a carefully crafted narrative of lies and half-truths designed to make the righteous look like rebels. This is precisely what we see here. This letter is not a straightforward report; it is a piece of political poison, a nasty-gram sent to the top. The authors are masters of this dark art. They know exactly which buttons to push with a pagan king: money and power. Their central claim is that a rebuilt Jerusalem will threaten the king's treasury and his geopolitical control.

Notice the hypocrisy. They present themselves as the king's most loyal servants, deeply concerned for his honor. The phrase "we are in the service of the palace" literally means "we eat the salt of the palace." They are saying, "We are on your payroll, we are your men, and we cannot bear to see you dishonored." But this is a complete sham. Their real motive is hatred for the Jews and their God. They cannot stand to see the temple of Yahweh being rebuilt in their midst. Their loyalty to the king is a convenient mask for their hostility to the King of kings. This is how the world always operates. It rarely attacks Christianity for being Christian; it attacks Christianity for supposedly being a threat to public order, a danger to the state, or a drain on the economy. The accusation is always couched in secular terms, but the animus is always spiritual.

Verse by Verse Commentary

7 And in the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his colleagues wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia; and the text of the letter was written in Aramaic and translated from Aramaic.

Ezra begins this section by noting an initial letter, distinct from the one he is about to quote at length. This serves to show that the opposition was not a one-off event but a sustained campaign. The letter was written in Aramaic, the lingua franca of the Persian empire, the common language of diplomacy and administration. This was official business, conducted through the proper channels. The world knows how to use its own systems to its advantage.

8 Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes, as follows,

Now we get to the main event. Ezra names the ringleaders: Rehum and Shimshai. These are not just random malcontents; they are officials with titles. Rehum is a "commander" or high commissioner, and Shimshai is the "scribe" or secretary. They represent the local Persian administration. This is not a mob action; this is the machinery of government being turned against the people of God. Their letter is explicitly "against Jerusalem." Their purpose is not to inform, but to destroy.

9-10 then wrote Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe and the rest of their colleagues, the judges and the lesser governors, the officials, the secretaries, the men of Erech, the Babylonians, the men of Susa, that is, the Elamites, and the rest of the nations, which the great and honorable Osnappar took away into exile and settled in the city of Samaria and in the rest of the region beyond the River. And now,

Before quoting the letter, Ezra lists the signatories. This is important. Rehum and Shimshai were not acting alone; they had assembled a broad coalition of opposition. The list includes various officials and peoples who had been transplanted into the northern kingdom of Israel by the Assyrian king "Osnappar," another name for the great and powerful Ashurbanipal. These are the Samaritans and their neighbors. Their identity is defined by the fact that they are not the covenant people. They are the replacements, and they resent the return of the originals. This is the world, in all its pagan diversity, uniting for one purpose: to oppose the rebuilding of God's city.

11 this is the copy of the letter which they sent to him: “To King Artaxerxes: Your servants, the men in the region beyond the River, and now,

The letter begins with a formal, respectful salutation. They identify themselves as the king's humble "servants." This is standard court etiquette, but in this context, it is dripping with insincerity. They are posturing as loyal subjects in order to carry out their disloyal and envious plans.

12 let it be known to the king that the Jews who came up from you have come to us at Jerusalem; they are rebuilding the rebellious and evil city and are completing the walls and repairing the foundations.

Here is the first great lie, mixed with a kernel of truth. The Jews were indeed rebuilding. But they were rebuilding the temple, as Cyrus had authorized. The accusers cleverly twist this into a project of urban fortification. They label Jerusalem a rebellious and evil city. This is pure slander. And they claim the Jews are "completing the walls," which was not true at this point. This is an exaggeration designed to create a sense of urgency and military threat. They are painting a picture of a rogue state rising on the king's frontier.

13 Now let it be known to the king, that if that city is rebuilt and the walls are completed, they will not give tribute, custom, or toll, and it will damage the revenue of the kings.

Having established the (false) premise of a military buildup, they now get to the heart of their argument: the king's wallet. This is the language every politician understands. They warn that a fortified Jerusalem will cease to be a source of revenue. The triple mention of tribute, custom, or toll covers all forms of taxation. The message is simple: these people are going to cost you money and diminish your power. This is a powerful and effective lie, because it aligns their own wicked agenda with the king's perceived self-interest.

14 Now because we are in the service of the palace, and it is not fitting for us to see the king’s dishonor, therefore we have sent and made known to the king,

This is the most pious-sounding verse in the whole letter, and therefore the most hypocritical. They cloak their malice in the guise of loyalty. "We eat the salt of the palace," they say. "We are your men, and we are simply looking out for you. We are motivated by a deep concern for your honor." This is the classic move of the slanderer: to pretend that his attack on another is actually a defense of a third party. They are not just enemies of the Jews; they are liars and flatterers.

15 that a search be made in the record books of your fathers. And you will find in the record books and come to know that that city is a rebellious city and damaging to kings and provinces, and that they have incited revolt within it in past days; therefore that city was laid waste.

This is a shrewd move. They appeal to the historical record. And in one sense, they are right. The kingdom of Judah, before the exile, did have a history of rebelling against the Babylonian empire. So the records would indeed show that Jerusalem was a "rebellious city." What they conveniently leave out is that this is a new community, a chastened remnant, sent back with Persian authorization for a religious, not a political, purpose. They are using a past truth to lie about the present. They are counting on the king to be a lazy historian, to see the word "rebellious" and not bother with the details and the context.

16 We make known to the king that if that city is rebuilt and the walls completed, as a result you will have no portion in the province beyond the River.”

This is the conclusion and the final, exaggerated threat. They move from a loss of revenue to a loss of the entire Trans-Euphrates province. They are telling the king that the rebuilding of this one city will cause him to lose a massive portion of his empire. It is a ridiculous overstatement, but it is designed to provoke fear and an immediate, decisive response. They want the king to see this not as a local building project, but as an existential threat to his entire western flank. And as we will see, their strategy works.

Application

The tactics of Rehum and Shimshai are not gathering dust in the archives of ancient history. They are alive and well, and are deployed against the Church of Jesus Christ on a regular basis. Whenever God's people begin to build, to advance, to take ground for the kingdom, the enemies of God will write their letters. They will go to the city council, to the media, to the courts, to the HR department. And the accusations will have a familiar ring.

Christians will be accused of being "rebellious and evil." Our desire to build a Christian culture will be twisted into a seditious plot against the secular order. Our faithfulness to God's law will be painted as a threat to the public good. Our motives will be slandered. Our history will be selectively used against us. And it will all be wrapped in a cloak of concern for "public safety," "tolerance," or "the common good."

The lesson for us is twofold. First, we must not be surprised when this opposition comes. It is part of the script. The world hated our Master, and it will hate us. To be the object of this kind of slander is often a sign that we are doing something right. Second, we must not be ultimately discouraged by it. This letter succeeded in stopping the work for a time, but it did not stop God's ultimate purpose. The temple was eventually finished. The walls were eventually built. God's kingdom cannot be thwarted by the poison pens of petty bureaucrats. Our job is to be faithful, to keep building, and to trust our sovereign God to handle the Rehum's and Shimshai's of our own day. We must answer their lies not with clever political maneuvering of our own, but with the simple, solid, and indestructible truth of the gospel, and with the tangible evidence of faithful work.