Ezra 6

The Decree of Cyrus Found at Ecbatana

1Then King Darius issued an order, and a search was made in the house of the archives, where the treasures were stored in Babylon. 2And at Ecbatana, in the fortress in the province of Media, a scroll was found, and this was written in it as a record: 3In the first year of King Cyrus, King Cyrus issued an order concerning the house of God in Jerusalem: “Let the house be rebuilt as a place where sacrifices are offered, and let its foundations be laid. Its height is to be sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits, 4with three courses of dressed stone and one course of new timber; and let the cost be met from the king’s house. 5And also, let the vessels of the house of God, of gold and silver, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple in Jerusalem and carried to Babylon, be given back and brought to the temple in Jerusalem, each to its place; you are to set them down in the house of God.”

The Decree of Darius

6“Now then, Tattenai, governor of Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai and your associates, the officials of Beyond the River: keep well away from there. 7Leave the work on that house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild that house of God on its site. 8And I hereby issue an order about what you are to do for those elders of the Jews in the rebuilding of that house of God: out of the king’s revenue, from the tribute of Beyond the River, the cost is to be paid in full to these men, with diligence, so that the work is not halted. 9And whatever they need — young bulls, rams and lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, and wheat, salt, wine and oil, according to the word of the priests in Jerusalem — is to be given to them day by day without fail, 10so that they may present offerings of pleasing aroma to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons. 11I also issue an order that if anyone alters this decree, a beam is to be torn out of his house, and he is to be lifted up and impaled on it, and for this his house is to be made a rubbish heap. 12And may the God who has made his name dwell there overthrow any king or people who lifts a hand to alter this, to destroy that house of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have issued the order. Let it be carried out with diligence.”

The Temple Finished and Dedicated

13Then Tattenai, governor of Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai and their associates carried out with diligence exactly what King Darius had sent. 14And the elders of the Jews went on building and prospering through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo. They built and finished the house by the order of the God of Israel and by the order of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia. 15This house was completed on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. 16Then the Israelites — the priests, the Levites and the rest of the returned exiles — celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy. 17For 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. 18And they installed the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their courses for the service of God in Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.

The Passover of the Returned Exiles

19The returned exiles kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. 20For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were clean. They slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priests and for themselves. 21So the Israelites who had come back from exile ate it, and with them everyone who had separated himself from the uncleanness of the nations of the land to join them in seeking Yahweh, the God of Israel. 22And for seven days they kept the Festival of Unleavened Bread with joy, because Yahweh had made them glad and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them, so that he strengthened their hands in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.