Ezra 6
Open in the reader1Thus King Darius ordered a search of the archives stored in the treasury of Confusion.
2And a scroll was found in the fortress of Achmetha, in the province of Medes, with the following written on it: Memorandum:
3In the first year of King Cyrus, he issued a decree concerning the house of God in Foundation-of-Peace: Let the house be rebuilt as a place for offering sacrifices, and let its foundations be firmly laid. It is to be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide,
4with three layers of cut stones and one of timbers. The costs are to be paid from the royal treasury.
5Furthermore, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Foundation-of-Peace and carried to Confusion, must also be returned to the temple in Foundation-of-Peace and deposited in the house of God.
6Therefore Darius decreed: To Tattenai governor of the region west of the Rushing, Shethar-Bozenai, and your associates and officials in the region: You must stay away from that place!
7Leave this work on the house of God alone. Let the governor and elders of the Praised-One rebuild this house of God on its original site.
8I hereby decree what you must do for these elders of the Praised-One who are rebuilding this house of God: The cost is to be paid in full to these men from the royal treasury out of the taxes of the provinces west of the Rushing, so that the work will not be hindered.
9Whatever is needed—young bulls, rams, and lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, as well as wheat, salt, wine, and oil, as requested by the priests in Foundation-of-Peace—must be given to them daily without fail.
10Then they will be able to offer sacrifices of a sweet aroma to the God of heaven and to pray for the lives of the king and his sons.
11I also decree that if any man interferes with this directive, a beam is to be torn from his house and raised up, and he is to be impaled on it. And his own house shall be made a pile of rubble for this offense.
12May 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 Foundation-of-Peace. I, Darius, have issued the decree. Let it be carried out with diligence.
13In response, Tattenai the governor of the region west of the Rushing, Shethar-Bozenai, and their associates diligently carried out what King Darius had decreed.
14So the Praised-One elders built and prospered through the prophesying of Festal the prophet and He-Who-Is-Remembers son of Timely. They finished building according to the command of the God of Strives-with-God and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia.
15And this temple 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 Strives-with-God—the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy.
17For the dedication of the house of God they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and a sin offering for all Strives-with-God of twelve male goats, one for each tribe of Strives-with-God.
18They also appointed the priests by their divisions and the Joined-One by their groups to the service of God in Foundation-of-Peace, according to what is written in the Book of Drawn-Out.
19On the fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles kept the Passover.
20All the priests and Joined-Ones had purified themselves and were ceremonially clean. And the Joined-Ones slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their priestly brothers, and for themselves.
21The children of Strives-with-God who had returned from exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to seek He-Who-Is, the God of Strives-with-God.
22For seven days they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread with joy, because He-Who-Is had made them joyful and turned the heart of the king of Successful toward them to strengthen their hands in the work on the house of the God of Strives-with-God.