Ezra 4:3

²⁰Then I answered them, and said to them, “The God of heaven will prosper us. Therefore we, his servants, will arise and build; but you have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem.”

¹⁶“Behold, I send you out as sheep among wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

³In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king made a decree: Concerning God’s house at Jerusalem, let the house be built, the place where they offer sacrifices, and let its foundations be strongly laid, with its height sixty cubits^[+] and its width sixty cubits; ⁴with three courses of great stones and a course of new timber. Let the expenses be given out of the king’s house. ⁵Also let the gold and silver vessels of God’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple which is at Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought again to the temple which is at Jerusalem, everything to its place. You shall put them in God’s house.

⁴For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel my chosen, I have called you by your name. I have given you a title, though you have not known me.

²²You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. ²³But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers.

²¹You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart isn’t right before God.

⁹I wrote to the assembly, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, doesn’t accept what we say. ¹⁰Therefore, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly accusing us with wicked words. Not content with this, he doesn’t receive the brothers himself, and those who would, he forbids and throws out of the assembly.

⁴who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; ⁵of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.