Discovery BoxEzra 4:8 
Context4:8 Rehum the commander 1 and Shimshai the scribe 2 wrote a letter concerning 3 Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows:
Ezra 4:13
Context4:13 Let the king also be aware that if this city is built and its walls are completed, no more tax, custom, or toll will be paid, and the royal treasury 4 will suffer loss.
Ezra 4:17
Context4:17 The king sent the following response:
“To Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their colleagues who live in Samaria and other parts of Trans-Euphrates: Greetings! 5
Ezra 4:23
Context4:23 Then, as soon as the copy of the letter from King Artaxerxes was read in the presence of Rehum, Shimshai the scribe, and their colleagues, they proceeded promptly to the Jews in Jerusalem 6 and stopped them with threat of armed force. 7
1 tn Aram “lord of the command.” So also in vv. 9, 17.
2 sn Like Rehum, Shimshai was apparently a fairly high-ranking official charged with overseeing Persian interests in this part of the empire. His title was “scribe” or “secretary,” but in a more elevated political sense than that word sometimes has elsewhere. American governmental titles such as “Secretary of State” perhaps provide an analogy in that the word “secretary” can have a broad range of meaning.
3 tn Or perhaps “against.”
4 tn Aram “the treasury of kings.” The plural “kings” is Hebrew, not Aramaic. If the plural is intended in a numerical sense the reference is not just to Artaxerxes but to his successors as well. Some scholars understand this to be the plural of majesty, referring to Artaxerxes. See F. C. Fensham, Ezra and Nehemiah (NICOT), 74.
5 tn Aram “peace.”
6 tn Aram “to Jerusalem against the Jews.”
7 tn Aram “by force and power,” a hendiadys.
