Be it known unto the king, that the Jews who came up from you to us have come unto Jerusalem, building the rebellious and wicked city, and are finishing its walls, and repairing the foundations.
All Commentaries on Ezra 4:12 Go To Ezra 4
Bede
AD 735
Josephus believes that this Artaxerxes, who forbade that the temple might be reconstructed in Jerusalem after receiving the letter from the Samaritans, was Cambyses, son of Cyrus, who took power after his father had reigned for thirty years and ruled the kingdom for eight years. Then the magi reigned one year after him, until Darius, son of Hystaspis, succeeded. And in the second year of his reign, in which he allowed the temple to be rebuilt, the angel said through the prophet Zechariah before the people: “O Lord of hosts, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which you have been angry these seventy years?” With regard to Ahasuerus, to whom it is said that a letter of accusation was sent as well, it is not mentioned whether he replied or wrote anything back, because he died in the same year in which he had begun to reign, so that he left to Artaxerxes all the power and also the care of this case.
