Ezra 6

1Then King Darius issued a decree, and a search was made in the house of records in Babylon, where the treasures were stored.

2A scroll was found at Ecbatana, in the fortress in the province of Media, and this was written in it: “A record.

3In 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, and let its foundations be firmly laid. Its height is to be sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits,

4with three layers of large stones and one layer of new timber. The cost is to be paid from the royal treasury.

5Also, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, are to be returned and brought back to their place in the temple in Jerusalem; you are to put them in the house of God.”

6“Now then, Tattenai governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and your associates, the officials of the province Beyond the River, keep away from there.

7Leave 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.

8I also issue a decree about what you are to do for these elders of the Jews in rebuilding this house of God: the expenses are to be paid to these men in full from the royal revenue, from the tribute of the province Beyond the River, so that the work does not stop.

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

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

11I also issue a 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 garbage heap because of this.

12May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who reaches out a hand to alter this or to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have issued the decree; let it be carried out diligently.”

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

14So the elders of the Jews kept building and prospering through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished building by the command of the God of Israel and by the decree 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 people of Israel—the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles—celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.

17At 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, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.

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

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

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 brothers the priests, and for themselves.

21The Israelites who had returned from the exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the nations of the land to join them in seeking Yahweh, the God of Israel.

22For seven days they joyfully celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because Yahweh had filled them with joy and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them, so that he supported them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.