This [is] the contents of the letter which they sent to him: To King Artaxerxes from your servants the men [of the region] beyond the river:

Then the tax collector of King Artaxerxes read [the letter] before Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, and his fellow servants. And they went in haste to Jerusalem and through Judah, and caused them to cease with horses and an [armed] force.

Thus has judged Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of our fellow servants, the Dinaites, the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the people of Persia, the Erech, the Babylonians, the Shushan, the Dehavites,

Now, you rulers beyond the river, Shethar-Boznai, and their fellow servants the Apharsachaeans, who [are] on the other side of the river, give [these things], keeping far from that place.