In Revised Standard Version this verse is connected to the previous chapter by the temporal expression Now when. “At that time” would also be an appropriate translation.
The people who came to offer help and then hindered the work are identified as the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin. Previous experience with the neighboring peoples in Ezra 3.3 already marked them as enemies. The root meaning of the Hebrew word that is translated as adversaries or “enemies” is “to press, to bind up.” The underlying meaning here is “to cause distress to [someone]” or “to be hostile toward [someone].” In the history as it is recounted in the following verses, it becomes clear that these people were hostile toward the people of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Bible en français courant makes it explicit that they are “enemies of the Jews of Judah and Benjamin.” For Judah and Benjamin, see Ezra 1.5.
In translation the word used to express enmity here should be one whose main component of meaning is “antagonism”, “opposition to” or “hostility toward.” The emphasis in this context is not on mutual hatred or on the enmity of war, nor is it the enmity of a powerful oppressor against a conquered people. It should not be specified in the translation that these enemies were the Samaritans as is done in Amplified Bible.
What they heard may refer to the sound that was heard far away in Ezra 3.13. This is how it is interpreted in 1 Esdras 5.66: “when the enemies of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin heard it, they came to find out what the sound of the trumpets meant.” Most translations, however, use heard to introduce what someone told the enemies of the Jews. They heard a report that the Jews who had returned from exile were rebuilding the Temple.
The returned exiles is literally “the sons of the exile.” New King James Version attempts to follow the Hebrew by saying “the descendants of the captivity,” but this does not make sense in English. Many other languages, however, will have a similar expression for describing a group of people who have undergone a common experience. For example, this may be expressed as “the offspring of the exile,” or there may be a special noun or compound noun to render it. The meaning, of course, is “those who had returned from exile” (Good News Translation). Translators must make sure that the meaning is clear.
A temple to the LORD, the God of Israel: The Hebrew text uses the preposition le, meaning “to” or “for,” to indicate for whom the Temple was being built. Many versions render it this way with a preposition such as to (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Nouvelle version Segond révisée, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) or “for” (New International Version, Bible en français courant). Other versions translate the meaning on the basis of the context, which is that they were rebuilding the Temple “of” the LORD, as in Good News Translation (also New Jerusalem Bible, Contemporary English Version). For temple see Ezra 3.6, and for the LORD, the God of Israel, see Ezra 1.3.
Quoted with permission from Noss, Philip A. and Thomas, Kenneth J. A Handbook on Ezra. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2005. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .