Then translates the Hebrew expression wayyehi, which is a combination of the connective conjunction and the verb that means “to be” or “to happen.” It introduces the next event in the narrative (see Neh 1.1 for a comment). Here most versions understand the Hebrew to represent an adverbial notion of time sequence as both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have rendered it (also King James Version). New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh translates “Thereupon.”

The Jews rejected the offer of help from the people of the land, who then tried to stop the rebuilding of the Temple. They succeeded in stopping it until the time of King Darius. The people of the land include the “adversaries” of verse 1 but may also include the people of Israel who were not taken into exile in Babylonia. The same expression is used here as was used in Ezra 3.3 except that here it is in the singular. The two expressions are used with the same meaning throughout Ezra and Nehemiah. In some languages it may be translated “the people of that place.”

Verses 4-5 provide a summary of the ways by which the Jewish enemies opposed their work. Three ways are mentioned by which they stopped those who returned from rebuilding the Temple:
1) they discouraged them (verse 4),
2) they made them afraid to build (verse 4), and
3) they “hired counselors against them” (verse 5).

In Hebrew discouraged is a figure of speech that literally says “making slack one’s hands” or “weakening one’s hands.” The meaning is to destroy someone’s courage for war (Jer 38.4) or for work, or as Revised English Bible says, to cause them “to lose heart.” New Jerusalem Bible avoids using figurative language by saying “demoralising.” Other languages may have figures of speech that express similar meaning, such as “to make their bones weak,” “to make their livers soft,” or “to cause their spirit to break.”

Made them afraid to build is a causative expression, meaning “to cause them to be afraid of building” or “to frighten them not to build.” It is implied that something will happen to the Jews if they build, but what will happen or what will be done to them is not indicated. This may be translated “they put fear into their hearts to keep them from building.”

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 .