At the same time came to them Tatnai, governor on this side the river, and Shetharboznai, and their companions, and said thus unto them, Who hath commanded you to build this house, and to make up this wall?
Ver. 3. At the same time] So soon as ever they began but to build God's house they meet with opposition; which is still Evangelii Genius, guardian spirit of the truth, saith Calvin, the bad angel that haunts the cause of God, and dogs it at the heels. Satan, out of his inveterate envy and enmity, can in no wise brook the propagation of the truth and dilatation of Christ's curtains. No sooner is Israel out of Egypt, but Pharaoh pursueth them. No sooner had Hezekiah kept that solemn passover, but Sennacherib comes up against him. Esau began to jostle Jacob in the womb, that no time might be lost; and when he set his face homewards, Laban follows him with one troop, Esau meets him with another; both with hostile intentions. Dream not of a delicacy in God's ways, but suffer hardship, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
And their companions] Cum collegio suo (Junius), a company of captives combined to do mischief. See Ezra 4:9. See Trapp on " Ezr 4:9 "
Who hath commanded you to build this house?] Their own houses they built, and were never once questioned. All the while our Saviour lay in his father's shop, and meddled only with carpenter's chips, the devil and his imps never troubled him; but when he was entering upon his ministry he is sharply assaulted in the wilderness. And when he took upon him to purge the temple, and better inform the people, presently the leaders came upon him as he was teaching, and said, "By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?" Matthew 21:23. Like unto these were the questions put by the Papists to those noble reformers, Luther, Zuinglius, &c. Farellus was at his first coming to Geneva more harshly handled, and by the bishop and his clerks thus accosted: Quid tu, diabole nequissime, ad hanc civitatem perturbandam accessisti? What a devil makest thou here to make this disturbance &c., and so was driven out of the city, where afterwards he wrought a glorious reformation (Scultet. Annal.).