Work Stops and Starts
Ezra and Zechariah - (Ezra 4:23-5:2)
Now after the copy of the official document of Artaxerxes the king had been read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their colleagues, they went in a hurry to Jerusalem to the Jews and stopped them by force of arms.
It was then that the work on the house of God, which was in Jerusalem, stopped; and it continued stopped until the SECOND YEAR OF THE REIGN OF DARIUS THE KING OF PERSIA.
And Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the grandson of Iddo the prophet prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and in Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel [who was] over them.IT WAS THEN that Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jehozadak got up and started to rebuild the house of God, which was in Jerusalem; and with them there were God’s prophets giving them aid.