EzraChapter 6

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¹So King Darius gave an order. They searched the records kept in the treasury rooms of Babylon. ²A scroll was found in the fortress of Ecbatana in the province of Media. This is what was written on it: A record: ³In King Cyrus's first year, he gave an order about God's house in Jerusalem: Let the house be built again as a place to offer sacrifices. Let its foundations be laid firmly. It is to be 90 feet high and 90 feet wide.a ⁴It is to have three layers of cut stone and one layer of wood. The costs will be paid from the king's treasury. ⁵Also, the gold and silver things from God's house must be given back. Nebuchadnezzar took them from the temple in Jerusalem and carried them to Babylon. They must go back to the temple in Jerusalem. Put them in God's house. ⁶So Darius gave this order: To Tattenai, governor of the land west of the Euphrates, to Shethar-bozenai, and to your helpers, the officials in that land: Stay away from that place! ⁷Leave the work on this house of God alone. Let the governor and elders of the Jews build this house of God again on the same spot. ⁸I am also ordering what you must do for these elders of the Jews as they build this house of God. Pay these men in full from the king's treasury. Use the taxes from the lands west of the Euphrates. Then the work will not be held up. ⁹Give the priests in Jerusalem whatever they need. They may need young bulls, rams, and lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven. They may need wheat, salt, wine, and olive oil. Give them what they ask for every day. Do not fail to do it. ¹⁰Then they can offer sacrifices that smell sweet to the God of heaven. They can pray for the life of the king and his sons. ¹¹I also order this. If any man goes against this order, pull a beam from his house. Set it up and impale him on it. Turn his house into a pile of rubble for this crime. ¹²God has made his Name live there. May he destroy any king or people who try to change this order. May he destroy anyone who tries to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have given the order. Let it be done with care. ¹³So Tattenai, the governor of the land west of the Euphrates, obeyed. Shethar-bozenai and their helpers did too. They carefully did what King Darius had ordered. ¹⁴So the Jewish elders kept building, and the work went well. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo spoke God's word to them. They finished building, as the God of Israel had commanded. They also did what Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia, had ordered. ¹⁵The temple was finished on the third day of the month of Adar. This was in the sixth year that King Darius ruled. ¹⁶Then the people of Israel held a joyful service to give God's house to God. The priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles took part. ¹⁷To give God's house to God, they offered 100 bulls, 200 rams, and 400 lambs. They also offered 12 male goats as a sin offering for all Israel. There was one goat for each tribe of Israel. ¹⁸They also set up the priests in their groups and the Levites in their teams. They were to serve God in Jerusalem. This followed what is written in the Book of Moses. ¹⁹On the fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles held the Passover. ²⁰All the priests and Levites had made themselves pure. They were clean by the law. The Levites killed the Passover lamb for all the exiles. They killed it for their brothers the priests and for themselves. ²¹The Israelites who had come back from exile ate it. Others ate with them. These people had turned away from the unclean ways of the nations in the land. They wanted to seek the LORD, the God of Israel. ²²For seven days they joyfully held the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They did this because the LORD had filled them with joy. He had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them. He did it to make them strong in their work on the house of the God of Israel.