Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Then ceased the work of the house of God - i:e., in consequence of the letter of Smerdis, who, it appears, being a usurper and a Magian, changed the old religion of Persia, and, consistently enough, arrested the progress of a religious revival in Judea which Cyrus had begun. It was this occurrence that first gave rise to the strong religious antipathy between the Jews and the Samaritans, which was afterward greatly aggravated by the erection of a rival temple on mount Gerizim.
Besides the order of Smerdis for the cessation of the work at the temple, the returned exiles were subjected to various harassing circumstances which obstructed and discouraged their progress in the restoration of Jerusalem. Not the least of these annoyances were the frequent expeditions for the conquest of Egypt by the Persian monarchs, who, of course, marched their armies through Palestine as the high road to the land of the Nile, and levied recruits from their Jewish subjects there. Between the arrival of the first caravan under Zerubbabel, and that of Nehemiah, no less than three such expeditions passed through Palestine. By the last-that of Artaxerxes-the Persian army was detained a whole year in that country (Diodorus Siculus, 11:, 71-74).