After the third bodyguard, Zerubbabel, won permission to restore Jerusalem, King Darius sent along with them a thousand calvary for their protection and musicians to make them merry on their journey.
After seven months, they were home. They gathered to worship, joined by some of the other citizens but to the hostility of other citizens. They gave burnt offerings every morning and evening and other offerings and sacrifices at the appropriate times. But, they did not have a temple.
In the second year after their arrival, they laid a foundation for the temple. The people responded with trumpets and shouts praising the Lord. The trumpets were so loud that some other people heard them and came to find out what was going on. When they learned that the returned exiles were building the temple, they offered to help. The offer was rejected.
Their response was that if you won't accept our help, then we won't let you build it at all. They cut off supplies and by plots and demagoguery and uprisings, preventing completion for two years.
Parallel: 1 Edras 5:7-73 to Ezra 2:1-4;5
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