Ezra 6

¹ Then King Darius issued an order, and they searched the house of the records, where the treasures were kept there in Babylon.

² And in Ecbatana, in the citadel in the province of Media, a scroll was found, and this record was written in it:

³ “In the first year of King Cyrus, King Cyrus issued an order concerning the house of God in Jerusalem: Let the house be built, a place where sacrifices are offered, and let its foundations be laid. Its height shall be sixty cubits, and its width sixty cubits.

⁴ Three rows of cut stone and one row of new timber. The cost shall be paid from the king’s treasury.

⁵ Also, let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be returned. Let them go back to the temple in Jerusalem, to their place, and you shall deposit them in the house of God.”

⁶ “Now, Tattenai, governor of Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and your associates, the officials in Beyond the River: keep away from there.

⁷ Let the work on this house of God continue. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of God in its place.

⁸ And I issue an order about what you must do for these elders of the Jews as they build this house of God: the cost shall be paid promptly to these men from the king’s funds, from the tribute of Beyond the River, so that the work does not stop.

⁹ Whatever is needed for burnt offerings to the God of heaven—young bulls, rams, and lambs, wheat, salt, wine, and oil—let it be given to them day after day, without fail, as the priests in Jerusalem direct.

¹⁰ They are to offer pleasing aromas to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons.

¹¹ And I issue an order: If anyone alters this decree, let a beam be pulled from his house, and let him be raised up and impaled on it; and because of this, let his house be turned into a heap of rubble.”

¹² “May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow every king and people who reach out to alter this decree and destroy this house of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have issued the order; let it be carried out promptly.”

¹³ Then Tattenai, governor of Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates did exactly as King Darius had ordered, and did it promptly.

¹⁴ The elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo. They built and completed the house by the command of the God of Israel and by the commands of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, king of Persia.

¹⁵ This house was completed on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.

¹⁶ The Israelites—the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.

¹⁷ For the dedication of this house of God they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, and four hundred lambs; and, as a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁸ They appointed the priests to their divisions and the Levites to their shifts for the service of God in Jerusalem, as written in the Book of Moses.

¹⁹ The exiles celebrated Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.

²⁰ For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were clean. They slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves.

²¹ The Israelites who had returned from exile ate it, along with all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the nations of the land to join them and seek the LORD, the God of Israel.

²² They celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days with joy, because the LORD had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them, to strengthen their hands in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.

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