Ezra 6

¹ Then King Darius issued a decree, and they searched the archives stored in the treasury in Babylon.

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

³ "In the first year of King Cyrus, King Cyrus issued a decree concerning the house of God in Jerusalem: Let the house be rebuilt as a place where sacrifices are offered. Let its foundations be retained. Its height shall be sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits,

⁴ with three courses of large stones and one course of timber. Let the cost be paid from the royal treasury.

⁵ Also, let the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be returned and brought back to the temple in Jerusalem, each to its place. You shall deposit them in the house of God."

⁶ "Now therefore, Tattenai governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-Bozenai, and your associates, the officials of the province Beyond the River—stay away from there.

⁷ Leave the work on this house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site.

⁸ Moreover, I issue a decree regarding what you are to do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of God: The full cost is to be paid to these men from the royal revenue—from the taxes of the province Beyond the River—so that the work will not be stopped.

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

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

¹¹ I also decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam is to be pulled from his house, and he is to be lifted up and impaled on it. And his house is to be made a refuse heap for this.

¹² And may the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who lifts a hand to alter this decree or to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have issued this decree. Let it be carried out with diligence."

¹³ Then Tattenai governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-Bozenai, and their associates carried out with diligence what King Darius had ordered.

¹⁴ So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper, through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees 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 Then the people of Israel—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 one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats—one for each tribe of Israel.

¹⁸ They installed the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their sections for the service of God at Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.

¹⁹ On the fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles celebrated the Passover.

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

²¹ So the Israelites who had returned from exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the nations of the land to seek the LORD, the God of Israel.

²² They celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days with joy, for 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.