Chapter 4 of Ezra is the chapter of obstacles. After the returnees from Babylon laid the foundations and began building the Temple, their neighbors - the enemies of Israel dwelling in the land - enter the picture, working to halt the work in two ways: first from within, by offering partnership, and after being rejected, from without - by weakening their resolve, intimidation, hiring counselors, and sending letters of accusation to the kings of Persia. We will follow the order of the pesukim and explain them according to the approach of the Malbim.
וַיִּשְׁמְעוּ צָרֵי יְהוּדָה וּבִנְיָמִן כִּי בְנֵי הַגּוֹלָה בּוֹנִים הֵיכָל לַיהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ - And the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the exile were building a Sanctuary to Hashem, God of Israel.
Make no mistake: the "adversaries of Judah and Benjamin" were not Jews from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, but rather people who distressed the Jewish nation, residing in the territory of Judah and Benjamin. These were the gentiles whom the king of Assyria brought from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, and Sepharvaim, and settled in the cities of Samaria in place of Bnei Yisrael. This was the practice of the king of Assyria - to exile nations from place to place. Sennacherib exiled the Ten Tribes to Halah, Habor, and the river of Gozan, and from there he brought other nations here. He had two purposes in doing so: first, that the land not become desolate, so that it would continue to be cultivated; and second, as explained previously, to prevent rebellion - for when a nation is moved to another land, it takes a long time to acclimate and learn the language, leaving them no leisure to plan rebellions. Consequently, there were gentiles here in Judah and Benjamin to whom the rebuilding of the Beis HaMikdash was a thorn in their side.
וַיִּגְּשׁוּ אֶל זְרֻבָּבֶל וְאֶל רָאשֵׁי הָאָבוֹת וַיֹּאמְרוּ לָהֶם נִבְנֶה עִמָּכֶם כִּי כָכֶם נִדְרוֹשׁ לֵאלֹהֵיכֶם וְלוֹ אֲנַחְנוּ זֹבְחִים מִימֵי אֵסַר חַדֹּן מֶלֶךְ אַשּׁוּר הַמַּעֲלֶה אֹתָנוּ פֹּה׃ - And they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of the fathers' houses and said to them: "Let us build with you, for like you, we seek your God, and to Him we have been sacrificing since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here."
Their calculation was: to halt the construction of the Beis HaMikdash, we must connect with them, become part of them, and dismantle them from within. Therefore, they came and proposed an ostensible partnership: "Let us build with you." And how did they try to persuade them? What connection did they have to the House of Hashem? To this they answered: "For like you, we seek your God" - after all, we also serve Hashem.
The Malbim explains: these people engaged in idolatrous worship through shituf (syncretism). That is, they served God, but alongside Him, they also served their own gods, as the pasuk states: "They feared Hashem, and their own gods they served." They assumed that Israel also served Hashem in the same manner, in partnership with other powers, which is why they said, "We are just like you." And their addition, "and to Him we sacrifice" - meant that even though we worship other deities, nevertheless, to us the Creator of the world is the God of gods, supreme over all powers. He is the ultimate power above all forces in creation, and it is to Him that we offer sacrifices - so include us as well.
Who was Esarhaddon? When Sennacherib returned from his failed attempt to strike Jerusalem and King Hezekiah, it is recounted that he entered the temple of Nisroch his god, and there he made a vow, saying: If you, my god, grant me success to conquer Jerusalem, I will sacrifice my two sons to you. For he had heard that Israel's success stemmed from their father Abraham binding his son, so he said: I too will bind my two sons to you, if you ensure my victory in the war against Jerusalem. His sons, Adrammelech and Sarezer, heard this, went and killed him, and fled; and "Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place." Esarhaddon was the one who assumed the monarchy, and he was the one who brought them up here. Now they came and argued: We have been here since the days of Esarhaddon and have also been serving Hashem; therefore, allow us to build together with you.
וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם זְרֻבָּבֶל וְיֵשׁוּעַ וּשְׁאָר רָאשֵׁי הָאָבוֹת לְיִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא לָכֶם וָלָנוּ לִבְנוֹת בַּיִת לֵאלֹהֵינוּ כִּי אֲנַחְנוּ יַחַד נִבְנֶה לַיהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּנוּ הַמֶּלֶךְ כּוֹרֶשׁ מֶלֶךְ פָּרָס׃ - Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of the ancestral houses of Israel said to them: It is not for you and us to build a House for our God, but we alone will build for the Lord, God of Israel, as King Cyrus, king of Persia, commanded us.
The builders understood that the adversaries had no genuine intention of helping, and beyond that, they had another reason to refuse. "It is not for you and us to build a House for our God" - you and we will not build a House together. "For we alone will build" - only we, only Israel together, will build for the Lord, God of Israel.
Here lies the depth of the matter: "the God of Israel" denotes the individual Divine Providence (hashgachah pratit) that the Holy One, blessed be He, exercises over Israel. This is not the way you worship Him, for the providence over you is only general providence (hashgachah klalit), as you combine the Name of Heaven with other forms of idolatry. You regard Him merely as the god of the land - ruling over everything with a broad, overarching authority, a supreme leader, the God of gods, while your other idols, in your view, derive power from Him and possess power in their own right. But we believe uniquely in the Lord, God of Israel, our singular God, for the Holy One, blessed be He, chose Israel as His people, and He is not the "god of the heathens" dwelling in the land.
Therefore, they added, "as King Cyrus, king of Persia, commanded us." What did Cyrus command? As we saw explicitly in the verses of the first chapter, he commanded that this sanctuary be a house of prayer for Israel alone. He did not say the Temple would be for all nations, but designated specifically for Israel; only in the ultimate future will it encompass all peoples. This was his exact wording: "Whoever among you of all His people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the House of the Lord, God of Israel - He is the God who is in Jerusalem." It was not yet the universal vision we anticipate at the final redemption, when "My House shall be called a house of prayer for all nations," but rather a House for the God of Israel in Jerusalem. Thus, Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the ancestral leaders told them: We cannot build with you, because you regard Him as the god of all the nations, whereas we regard Him as the God of Israel, exercising individual providence over the Jewish people. The House we were commanded to build is a House for the God of Israel, not a house for the god of all the nations.
וַיְהִי עַם הָאָרֶץ מְרַפִּים יְדֵי עַם יְהוּדָה וּמְבַהֲלִים אוֹתָם לִבְנוֹת׃ - Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah and intimidated them away from building.
When the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin saw that they could not disintegrate them from within, they decided to undermine them from without. Those inhabitants of the land were "weakening the hands of the people of Judah" - sapping their strength and resolve - and "intimidated them," resorting to all kinds of intimidation to frighten and deter them from building.
וְסֹכְרִים עֲלֵיהֶם יוֹעֲצִים לְהָפֵר עֲצָתָם כָּל יְמֵי כּוֹרֶשׁ מֶלֶךְ פָּרַס וְעַד מַלְכוּת דָּרְיָוֶשׁ מֶלֶךְ פָּרָס׃ - And they hired counselors against them to thwart their plan all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, until the reign of Darius, king of Persia.
Nor did they stop there. "Vesochrim aleihem yo'atzim" ("and hiring counselors against them") - although the word is written here with a samech, it means sochrim with a shin (hiring). Even back then, they understood that running an effective campaign requires consultants. They sought to act against the Jewish people and obstruct the building of the Temple, so they hired advisors - and as we will see, these advisors proved well worth the money paid to them, for the adversary's work succeeded through their counsel. And for how long? "All the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, until the reign of Darius, king of Persia" - for eighteen years they succeeded in halting the construction of the Temple. The building had begun in the days of Cyrus, and as a result of these people, it ground to a halt until the reign of Darius.
וּבְמַלְכוּת אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ בִּתְחִלַּת מַלְכוּתוֹ כָּתְבוּ שִׂטְנָה עַל יֹשְׁבֵי יְהוּדָה וִירוּשָׁלִָם׃ - And in the reign of Ahasuerus, at the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
After Cyrus reigned, Ahasuerus reigned after him - the same Ahasuerus who married Esther, familiar to us from Megillat Esther. During that period, an accusation (sitnah) was written against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. "Sitnah" comes from the word satan - one who comes to obstruct, harass, and accuse. And it was this accusation that prevented them from building the Temple.
וּבִימֵי אַרְתַּחְשַׁשְׂתָּא כָּתַב בִּשְׁלָם מִתְרְדָת טָבְאֵל וּשְׁאָר כְּנָוֺתָו עַל אַרְתַּחְשַׁשְׂתְּא מֶלֶךְ פָּרָס וּכְתָב הַנִּשְׁתְּוָן כָּתוּב אֲרָמִית וּמְתֻרְגָּם אֲרָמִית׃ - And in the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his companions wrote to Artaxerxes, king of Persia; and the script of the letter was written in Aramaic and translated into Aramaic.
Who was Artaxerxes (Artachshasta)? Rashi explains that this was Cyrus, king of Persia, and also cites an opinion that Artaxerxes was Darius, who was called by this name. The Malbim explains that Artaxerxes was a royal title, and the king spoken of here is indeed Cyrus. This is a common phenomenon: just like "Pharaoh" - when examining the dynasties of the Pharaohs, each had an individual name and they are cataloged accordingly, but the general title for the monarch was Pharaoh. Likewise, many kings were called Avimelech, and similarly other titles represented the dynasty and crown while the rulers bore their own private names. Here, too, Artaxerxes was the regal title of the kings of Persia, and the one reigning at the time was Cyrus - for it was in the days of Cyrus that the work of rebuilding was halted. The construction ceased for fourteen years, which are two sabbatical cycles (shavu'im).
In order to understand the events surrounding the accusation written against the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash, the Malbim raises two questions. First: Cyrus himself had issued a royal decree, law, and written order to build the Beit HaMikdash, and we know that according to the laws of Persia and Media, an edict written in the king's name cannot be revoked. How is it possible, as we will see later, that Cyrus overturned a decree that he himself had enacted?
Second: How could people come forward and concoct such a blatant lie? The Gemara notes the principle of "a lie destined to be uncovered" - an established rule that a person does not lie about something that can be verified in a matter of seconds. A person lies about something difficult to verify, something that might never be discovered, or will be uncovered only when it is too late; but no one lies about something that can be inspected immediately. Furthermore, one who lies to his peer merely risks a dispute with a friend, but one who lies to the king risks his head - his head will be severed from his body! Yet here, as we shall see, they accuse the Jews of rebuilding Jerusalem and raising a wall in order to rebel against the king so he could no longer rule over them. How could they tell such an overt lie? This was not taking place in Australia; it was in a province where the king, within a short time, could inspect and determine whether their claim was true or pure fabrication. How did they dare utter such an obvious lie, which defies all reason?
The Malbim explains: We must understand that their lie was exceptionally cunning. This was no simple deception, but a sophisticated scheme - and that is precisely why they succeeded.
The Malbim explains: These adversaries of Judah bribed and hired counselors to advise them whom to pay and how to pay in order to achieve their objective. They knew that according to the laws of Persia and Media, it was impossible to rescind a decree written in the king's name. Moreover, they had nothing legitimate to inform upon - for in truth, the Jews were not rebuilding the city or the wall, but only the Temple. Therefore, they devised a stratagem.
The Persian Empire was vast, maintaining relations with numerous kingdoms. When many lands wished to send letters to the king, a problem arose: each nation wrote in its own script and language, so how could the king understand what those people and rulers wanted from him? Therefore, the Malbim explains, the standard practice among ancient monarchs was that anyone wishing to address the king wrote in the writer's own script and language - "that every man should bear rule in his own house and speak according to the language of his people." In each province, two royal officers were appointed to receive petitions and deliver royal responses. Their duty was to take the letters written by the people or regional governors, translate them into Persian, and deliver them to the king; then, upon receiving the king's response, translate it into Assyrian for Assyria, Chaldean for Chaldea, and so forth - dispatching the reply to each correspondent translated into his native tongue. In this manner, the king knew precisely what had been written and in what form, since these translators were royal servants on the king's payroll.
And how vital it is for a translator to be completely faithful! An interview was once published with a high-level diplomatic interpreter in the United States, who served at summits and meetings between the American and Russian presidents. He recounted that on several occasions he had averted serious diplomatic crises: there were remarks made by a president that the interpreter realized could spark an incident, so he softened the phrasing; at other times, he knew that certain expressions would be received by the other side in a manner entirely different from what was intended. Consider the story of a speaker whose listener approached him afterwards and said, "Listen, your speech was chaval al hazman!" - using an idiom that literally means "a waste of time" but in modern slang means "incredible!" The speaker was deeply offended: "What, my speaking was a waste of time?!" But the listener's meaning was entirely different from the speaker's understanding - each belonged to his own era and context. For this reason, the king required men whose translations were utterly reliable; these were the royal officers, and this was their role.
רְחוּם בְּעֵל טְעֵם וְשִׁמְשַׁי סָפְרָא כְּתַבוּ אִגְּרָה חֲדָה עַל יְרוּשְׁלֶם לְאַרְתַּחְשַׁשְׂתְּא מַלְכָּא כְּנֵמָא׃ - Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king, in this manner.
The official appointed to transcribe the dispatches that the king sent to the provinces was named Rehum Be'el Te'em (the royal chancellor). And the official appointed to receive the letters that citizens wrote to the king and translate them into Persian was named Shimshai. And who was this Shimshai? The son of Haman - observe what an influential post he held.
And what did these conspirators do? Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and their associates - the members of the faction - wrote the letter to Artaxerxes, king of Persia. The verse adds: "and the script of the dispatch was written in Aramaic and translated into Aramaic" - both the script had to be Aramaic and the language Aramaic. They delivered the letter to Rehum Be'el Te'em and Shimshai, so they could transcribe it into Persian script and the Persian language and forward it to the king.
And what is "ksav hanishtevan" (the dispatch script)? It means there was a requirement to cross-check and align (lehashvot) the versions. They took a letter that was "written in Aramaic and translated into Aramaic," meaning both the script was Aramaic and the language was Aramaic - for one could write Hebrew words using the Latin alphabet: one could write "A-N-I" and convey "ani" (I), where the word is Hebrew but the script is foreign. Here, the verse specifies that both script and language were Aramaic. This original then had to be compared with the translation prepared for the king, ensuring exact correspondence between the original and the translation - and that translation was what was ultimately presented to the king.
Chapter 4 opens the chain of obstacles to the rebuilding of the Beis HaMikdash. First came the adversaries of Yehudah and Binyamin - those nations exiled by the king of Assyria and settled in the cities of Shomron - proposing a partnership in the construction, claiming that they too served Hashem. In truth, their worship was idolatry combined with Hashem's service (shituf), and they mistakenly assumed that the people of Israel worshiped in that manner as well. Zerubbabel and Yeshua rejected them: this House is dedicated solely to Hashem, the God of Israel, based on His unique providence over the Jewish people, and Cyrus had likewise commanded that it should not be a universal house for all nations at this time. Once turned away, they shifted to external sabotage: demoralization, intimidation, bribing royal counselors, and drafting slanderous accusations, until the work was suspended. The Malbim teaches us that this smear campaign was not a crude falsehood, but a sophisticated plot that utilized the scribal and translation machinery of the Persian Empire - through those very ministers in charge, Rehum and Shimshai, through whose hands all royal correspondence flowed.