Ezra4chapter 4

It starts with an offer of help. "Let us build with you; for we seek your God as ye do." The people making the offer were descendants of populations Assyria had resettled in the north generations earlier, who worshiped the God of the land alongside their own gods. Zerubbabel refuses, and the offer turns instantly into obstruction.

The methods used are bureaucratic and effective: discouraging the people, weakening their hands, hiring counselors against them, and finally writing to the king. The work stopped and stayed stopped until the second year of Darius — about sixteen years, the exact stretch Haggai preached into.

Beginning at verse 8 the book switches into Aramaic and stays there for several chapters. That was not exotic; Aramaic was the working language of the Persian chancery, used for official correspondence from Egypt to India. Preserving these letters in their original language is the sort of thing an archive-based writer does.

The complaint sent to Artaxerxes is a shrewd piece of work. It never mentions religion. It says Jerusalem is a rebellious city with a long record, that if the walls go up the province will stop paying toll, tribute, and custom, and it suggests the king check the archives. Loss of revenue was the argument most likely to move a Persian treasury.

It worked. A decree came back ordering the work to cease, and the officials went up to Jerusalem "by force and power" and made them stop. That episode concerns the city walls in a later reign, which is why Nehemiah later hears that the wall is broken down and the gates burned.