Quotes About History

Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote the letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows:

and the rest of the peoples whom the great and honorable Ashurbanipal deported and settled in the cities of Samaria and elsewhere west of the Euphrates.

that a search should be made of the record books of your fathers. In these books you will discover and verify that the city is a rebellious city, harmful to kings and provinces, inciting sedition from ancient times. That is why this city was destroyed.

I issued a decree, and a search was conducted. It was discovered that this city has revolted against kings from ancient times, engaging in rebellion and sedition.

When the text of the letter from King Artaxerxes was read to Rehum, Shimshai the scribe, and their associates, they went immediately to the Jews in Jerusalem and forcibly stopped them.

The report they sent him read as follows: To King Darius: All peace.

In his first year, however, Cyrus king of Babylon issued a decree to rebuild this house of God.

Thus King Darius ordered a search of the archives stored in the treasury of Babylon.

And a scroll was found in the fortress of Ecbatana, in the province of Media, with the following written on it: Memorandum:

So the Jewish elders built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia.

And this temple was completed on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.

On the fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles kept the Passover.

Many years later, during the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,

the son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub,

the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth,

the son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki,

Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king.

These are the family heads and genealogical records of those who returned with me from Babylon during the reign of King Artaxerxes:

from the descendants of Phinehas, Gershom; from the descendants of Ithamar, Daniel; from the descendants of David, Hattush

from the descendants of Joab, Obadiah son of Jehiel, and with him 218 men;

from the descendants of Azgad, Johanan son of Hakkatan, and with him 110 men;

from the later descendants of Adonikam, these were their names: Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them 60 men;

From the days of our fathers to this day, our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities, we and our kings and priests have been delivered into the hands of the kings of the earth and put to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation, as we are this day.

From the descendants of Harim: Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, and Uzziah.