4 Then ^mthe people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build 5 and bribed counselors 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 ⁿAhasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.