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The Book of Ezra 6

6 So King Darius commanded his servants to search in the places where he kept important records there in the kingdom of Babylon. 2 They searched, and they found a scroll that contained the information that they wanted to know in the fortress city of Ecbatana in the province of Media. This is what that scroll said:

3 “During the first year that King Cyrus ruled the empire, he sent out a decree concerning the temple of God that was in Jerusalem. He said, ‘I command that the Jews shall build a new temple in the same place where they had previously offered sacrifices. They must make the temple 27 meters high and 27 meters wide. 4 They must build the temple from large stones. After putting down three layers of stones, the workers must put a layer of new timber on top of them. I will pay for this work with money from the royal treasury. 5 I also give back to the Jews the gold and silver containers that had belonged to the temple of God but that Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon. The Jews must take these and return them to the temple in Jerusalem. The Jews must put each one back in its original place in the temple of God.’ ”

6 After learning this from the scroll, King Darius had a scribe write that information in a letter that he sent to the leaders of the enemies of the Jews in Jerusalem. He also included this message: “This is a message for you, Tattenai, the governor of the province west of the Euphrates River, for you, Shethar-Bozenai, and for all of your associates, who are the officials of that province: Stay away from there! 7 Allow them to continue the work of rebuilding that temple of God. Allow the governor of the Jews and their elders to lead their people in building this new temple on the same site as the former temple. 8 Furthermore, I command you to help these leaders of the Jews in the following ways as they rebuild this temple of God. You must be sure to give these men funds so that they can continue the building work. Take the money from my treasury, from the tribute you collect in the province west of the Euphrates River. 9 The priests in Jerusalem need animals to sacrifice as burnt offerings to the God who is in heaven. This may include young bulls or rams or lambs. They may also need wheat, salt, wine, and olive oil to go with those sacrifices. Make sure that you diligently give them whatever they demand of those things every day. 10 When you do that, they will be able to offer sacrifices that please the God who is in heaven, and they will be able to pray that God will bless me and my sons.

11 This is what I command about anyone who disobeys this decree. My soldiers will pull a beam from his house and sharpen one end of it. Then they will bury the other end of the beam in the ground so that it stands upright. Then they will pick that person up and ram his body onto the sharpened beam. Then they will completely destroy that person’s house until only a pile of rubble is left, because he disobeyed me. 12 God himself has chosen that city of Jerusalem as the place where people will honor him. May he get rid of any king or any nation that tries to change this decree or destroy that temple in Jerusalem! I, Darius, make this decree. You must completely obey it.”

13 Tattenai, the governor of the province west of the Euphrates River, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates read the message from King Darius and immediately obeyed what the message from King Darius commanded them to do. 14 So the Jewish leaders continued to progress in their work of rebuilding the temple. The messages that the prophets Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo preached encouraged them greatly. The people worked until they completed the temple, just as their God had commanded them to do, and just as the Persian kings Cyrus and Darius had decreed, and as the Persian king Artaxerxes would decree later. 15 The people finished building this temple on the third day of the month of Adar, during the sixth year that King Darius ruled the kingdom of Persia.

16 Then the people of Israel, that is, the priests, the Levites, and everyone else who had returned from Babylonia, joyfully dedicated this temple to God. 17 During the ceremony to dedicate this temple to God, they sacrificed 100 young bulls, 200 rams, and 400 lambs. They also sacrificed 12 male goats as an offering so that God would forgive the sins of all the people, because that was how many tribes there were in Israel. 18 Then the Jewish leaders divided the priests and Levites into groups that would take turns serving in the temple of God in Jerusalem. They did this according to what Moses had written many years previously in the law.

19 On the fourteenth day of the first month, the Jews who had returned from Babylonia celebrated the Passover Festival. 20 To qualify themselves for offering the sacrifices, all the priests and Levites had already purified themselves by performing the proper rituals. Then they slaughtered the lambs for the benefit of everyone who had returned from Babylonia, for the other priests, and for themselves. 21 All of the Israelite people celebrated the Passover. This included the Israelites who had returned from Babylonia and the people who had separated themselves from the people of the area around them who worshiped other gods. They separated themselves from those people and joined the Israelites so that they could worship Yahweh, the God whom the Israelite people worshiped. 22 Then for the next seven days, they joyfully celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread. They were joyful because Yahweh had caused the king of Assyria to be favorable to them. As a result, the king had helped them to rebuild the temple of God, the God whom Israel worshiped.

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