Ezra 6

¹ Then, on the order of King Darius, search was made in the archives deposited in the treasuries inBabylon

² and a scrol was found in the fortress of Ecbatana, which ran as follows: 'Memorandum.

³ 'In the first year of King Cyrus, King Cyrus issued this order: "Temple of God in Jerusalem. "The Templeis to be rebuilt as a place of offering sacrifice and its foundations retained. Its height is to be sixty cubits, its widthsixty cubits,

⁴ with three layers of large stones and one layer of timber. The cost is to be met by the royal treasury.

⁵ Furthermore, the gold and silver articles belonging to the Temple of God which Nebuchadnezzar tookfrom the Temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon are to be given back and returned to the temple inJerusalem, each to its proper place, and deposited in the Temple of God."

⁶ 'Hence, Tattenai governor of Transeuphrates, Shethar-Bozenai and your associates, the officials ofTranseuphrates, keep away from there!

⁷ Leave the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews alone, to get on with their work on thatTemple of God; they are permitted to rebuild that Temple of God on that site.

⁸ And herewith are my instructions as to how you will assist these elders of the Jews in the rebuilding ofthat Temple of God: the cost is to be paid in ful to these men from the royal revenue, that is, from the taxes ofTranseuphrates, and without interruption.

⁹ And whatever is required -- young bul s, rams, lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat,salt, wine, oil, as the priests in Jerusalem request -- is to be given them day by day without fail,

¹⁰ so that they may offer sacrifices acceptable to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king andhis sons.

¹¹ Furthermore I have issued an instruction that if anyone disobeys this order, a beam is to be torn fromhis house, he is to be impaled on it and his house is to be reduced to a rubbish-heap for his offence;

¹² and may the God who has caused his name to live there overthrow the king of any people who daresto defy this and destroy that Temple of God in Jerusalem! I, Darius, have issued this order. Let it be punctiliouslyobeyed!'

¹³ Tattenai governor of Transeuphrates, Shethar-Bozenai and their associates punctiliously obeyed theinstructions sent by King Darius;

¹⁴ and the elders of the Jews made good progress over their building, thanks to the prophetic activity ofthe prophet Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo, completing the reconstruction in accordance with the commandof the God of Israel and the order of Cyrus and of Darius.

¹⁵ This Temple was completed on the twenty-third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reignof King Darius.

¹⁶ The Israelites -- the priests, the Levites and the remainder of the exiles -- joyful y celebrated thededication of this Temple of God;

¹⁷ for the dedication of this Temple of God they offered one hundred bul s, two hundred rams, fourhundred lambs and, as a sin offering for al Israel, twelve he-goats, corresponding to the number of the tribes ofIsrael.

¹⁸ Then they installed the priests in their orders and the Levites in their positions for the ministry of theTemple of God in Jerusalem, as prescribed in the Book of Moses.

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

²⁰ The Levites, as one man, had purified themselves; al were pure, so they sacrificed the Passover for althe exiles, for their brothers the priests and for themselves.

²¹ So the Israelites who had returned from exile and al those who had renounced the filthy practices ofthe people of the country to join them in resorting to Yahweh, God of Israel, ate the Passover.

²² For seven days they joyful y celebrated the feast of Unleavened Bread, for Yahweh had given themcause to rejoice, having moved the heart of the king of Assyria in their favour to support them in their work on theTemple of God, the God of Israel.