Ezra 4:24

"Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem; and it ceased until the second year of Darius I the king of Persia."

Chronologically, this verse comes exactly after Ezra 4:5, above, where it was stated that, "The people of the land hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose ... all the days of Cyrus king of Persia." In fact, this lobbying against the rebuilding of the temple went on throughout the remainder of the reign of Cyrus, through all the days of Cambyses, and until the second year of Darius I (520 B.C.).

A little later in Ezra (Ezra 6) we shall have a detailed report of how the opposition of the Samaritans was successfully checkmated and how Darius I ordered the temple to be rebuilt.

One of the significant revelations of the chapter is the racial makeup of what we have loosely called the "Samaritans." A remnant of those people was descended from the ten northern tribes of Israel; but as the letter to Artaxerxes shows, there were not less than nine different nationalities besides Israelites who constituted the population of Samaria.

"The great and noble Osnappar" (Ezra 4:10). This is the only mention in the Bible of this name. Rawlinson supposed that he was an officer of Esarhaddon;[3] Oesterley identified him as, "Ashurbanipal (668-626 B.C.), the son and successor of Esarhaddon."[4]