Following the preparation and beginning of the work in the first mission, the work faces opposition. In 4:1–3, the opposition begins as soon as the neighboring peoples hear that the Jews are “building a temple for the Lord.” Even before they build the altar, the Jews fear “the people around them” (literally “the peoples of the lands”; 3:3). In earlier times, the phrase “people of the land” (singular) referred to the landowning families of the ruling class. Later it referred to the “poor people of the land” (Hag. 2:4). In Ezra (in plural form) it refers to the surrounding peoples (e.g., those from Samaria, Ammon, Ashdod, Edom, and Moab). They are persons mostly of foreign descent. Some are mixed Jews, whose ancestors intermarried with people brought in by the Assyrians (cf. 2 Kings 17:24–2…