rifices according to the laws of Moses in
Jerusalem; and when they offer them, they shall pray to God for the
preservation of the king and of his family, that the kingdom of Persia
may continue. But my will is, that those who disobey these injunctions,
and make them void, shall be hung upon a cross, and their substance
brought into the king's treasury." And such was the import of this
epistle. Now the number of those that came out of captivity to
Jerusalem, were forty-two thousand four hundred and sixty-two.

CHAPTER 2. How Upon The Death Of Cyrus The Jews Were Hindered In
Building Of The Temple By The Cutheans, And The Neighboring Governors;
And How Cambyses Entirely Forbade The Jews To Do Any Such Thing.

1. When the foundations of the temple were laying, and when the Jews
were very zealous about building it, the neighboring nations, and
especially the Cutheans, whom Shalmanezer, king of Assyria, had brought
out of Persia and Media, and had planted in Samaria, when he carried the
people of Israel captives, besought the governors, and those that had
the care of such affairs, that they would interrupt the Jews, both in
the rebuilding of their city, and in the building of their temple. Now
as these men were corrupted by them with money, they sold the Cutheans
their interest for rendering this building a slow and a careless work,
for Cyrus, who was busy about other wars, knew nothing of all this; and
it so happened, that when he had led his army against the Massagetae, he
ended his life. [4] But when Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, had taken the
kingdom, the governors in Syria, and Phoenicia, and in the countries
of Amlnon, and Moab, and Samaria, wrote an epistle to Calnbyses;
whose contents were as follow: "To our lord Cambyses. We thy servants,
Rathumus the historiographer, and Semellius the scribe, and the rest
that are thy judges in Syria and Phoenicia, send greeting. It is fit,
O king, that thou shouldst know that those Jews which were carried to
Babylon are come into our country, and are building that rebellious
and wicked city, and its market-places, and setting up its walls,
and raising up the temple; know therefore, that when these things are
finished, they will not be willing to pay tribute, nor will they submit
to thy commands, but will resist kings, and will choose rather to rule
over others than be ruled over themselves. We therefore thought it
proper to write to thee, O king, while the works about the te