With you — This they spake not sincerely, but that by this conjunction with them, they might pry into their counsels, and thereby find some matter of accusation against them. We seek — For so they did, though in a mongrel way, 2 Kings 17:26, &c. Esarhaddon — Son of Sennacherib, and after him king of Assyria, who brought or sent these persons hither, either, in the day's of Salmanasar, who reigned in Assyria but eight years before Esarhaddon; and so Esarhaddon might be one of his commanders, and the man by whom that colony was sent. Or, in the reign of Esarhaddon, who sent this second colony to strengthen the first.
Related Commentaries of Ezra 4:2
Ezra 4:2
2 Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither.