Ezra 6

₁King Darius then told his men to look in the rooms where they kept the books and papers of the land of Babylon. ₂They found a scroll in Ecbatana, a town with strong walls. Ecbatana was in the province of Media. On the scroll was written: ‘This is what the king has decided. ₃In the first year after Cyrus became king, he has said they must build the temple in Jerusalem again so that the people can sacrifice their burnt-offerings there. The temple must be 60 cubits high and 60 cubits wide. ₄They must build the walls with stone and wood, 3 rows of stone and one row of wood each time. The king will pay for all the work. ₅The king must also give back all the golden and silver things that belong to the temple. Nebuchadnezzar took it from the temple in Jerusalem and he brought it to Babylon. They must take all of it back to the temple in Jerusalem and put it back in the temple of God.’

₆King Darius then wrote a letter to Tattenai, and said: ‘Tattenai, governor of the lands west of the Euphrates River, Shethar-Bozenai and all the officials with you in those lands: I am telling you now to stay away from the people who are building the temple. ₇The people must continue to build that temple and no one must try to stop them. The governor and the leaders of the people of Judah may build that temple again where it was.

₈And now I order you to help the leaders of the people of Judah to build the temple. You must give them everything they need immediately. You may take it from the tax money that I must get from the lands west of the Euphrates River. ₉You must also give the priests in Jerusalem everything that they need each day. You must give them young bulls, rams and lambs for burnt-offerings to the God of heaven. You must also give them wheat, salt, wine and olive oil. You must continue to do it every day. ₁₀You must give it so that the priests can bring offerings which please the God of heaven, and so that they will pray that God will be good to the king and his children. ₁₁If anyone changes my words or does not do what I say, then my men will take a pole from his house and pierce him so that he hangs from that pole. They will also destroy his house and change it into a dung heap.

₁₂I pray that God who lives in that temple will punish every king and nation who does not do what I say and everyone who wants to destroy this temple. I, Darius, order that they must do this and they must work hard so that they can finish the temple quickly.’

₁₃Tattenai, the governor of the lands west of the Euphrates River, and Shethar-Bozenai and the other officials with them immediately did what King Darius told them in his letter. ₁₄The leaders of the people of Judah continued to build the temple and it went well. It was like the prophet Haggai and the prophet Zechariah, son of Iddo, had said. The people of Judah finished building the temple as the God of Israel had said and as King Cyrus and King Darius and King Artaxerxes of Persia had said. ₁₅They finished the temple on the 3rd day of the month of Adar, in the 6th year after Darius had become king.

₁₆The Israelites, the priests and Levites and the other people who had come back from Babylon were very happy and they celebrated when they consecrated the temple. ₁₇They sacrificed 100 bulls, 200 sheep rams and 400 lambs, to consecrate the temple. They also sacrificed 12 goat-rams as a sin-offering for the Israelites, one goat for each of the 12 tribes. ₁₈They chose groups of priests and Levites to do the work of God in Jerusalem. They did it as it is written in the books_of_Moses.

₁₉The people who had been prisoners in Babylon and who had come back then celebrated Passover on the 14th day of the first month. ₂₀All the priests and Levites purified themselves, so they were all pure. They killed the Passover lamb for all the people who had come back from Babylon, for the priests and themselves. ₂₁The Israelites who had been prisoners in Babylon and who had come back ate the Passover lamb, and so did everyone who had stopped doing sinful and impure things that other people in the land did. The people who had stopped doing impure things started to serve the Lord, the God of Israel, with the Israelites. ₂₂They celebrated the Feast of the flat bread for 7 days. They rejoiced because God had made them happy. He had changed the heart of the king of Assyria and then the king was good to them and helped them to do the work of building the temple of the God of Israel.