Ezra 4:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Josephus asserts that the Artaxerxes who prohibited the reconstruction of the temple in Jerusalem, following a correspondence from the Samaritans, was in fact Cyrus' son Cambyses, who succeeded his father after a reign of thirty years and governed for an additional eight. Next, the Magi wielded power for one year until Darius, the son of Hystaspis, ascended to the throne. In the second year of Darius' reign, when he permitted the rebuilding of the temple, an angel addressed the people through the prophet Zechariah, proclaiming, “O Lord Almighty! How long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which You have been angry for seventy years?” (Zech. 1:12).