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21Now issue a decree to make those men stop work, so that this city will not be rebuilt until a decree is issued by me. 22And beware of being negligent in carrying out this matter; why should there be great damage, to the detriment of the kings?”
23Then as soon as the copy of King Artaxerxes’ decree was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their colleagues, they went in a hurry to Jerusalem to the Jews and stopped them by military force.
24Then work on the house of God in Jerusalem was discontinued, and it was stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
