1 Esdras 6

1In the second year of the reign of Darius, Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo, the prophets, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judea and Jerusalem in the name of the Lord God of Israel, to them.

2Then Zerubbabel son of Salathiel and Jeshua son of Josedek stood up and began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, while the prophets of the Lord were with them, helping them.

3At that time Sisinnes, the governor of Syria and Phoenicia, was present with them, along with Sathrabuzanes and his associates; and he said to them,

4By whose authorization are you building this house and completing this roof and all the rest? And who are the builders carrying out these things?

5And the elders of the Jews found favor from the Lord, having come to oversee the captivity.

6and they were not hindered from building until word about them should be sent to Darius and a reply should be returned.

7A copy of the letter that Sisinnes, the governor of Syria and Phoenicia, and Sathrabuzanes, and their associates, the rulers in Syria and Phoenicia, wrote and sent to King Darius: Greetings.

8Let everything be known to our lord the king: when we came into the land of Judea and to Jerusalem, the city, we found the elders of the captivity of the Jews in Jerusalem, the city, building a great new house for the Lord,

9with costly hewn stones, with timber laid in the buildings, and those works being done with diligence, and the work prospering in their hands, being completed with all glory and care.

10Then we questioned these elders, saying, ‘Who commanded you to build this house and—’

11So we questioned them in order to make it known to you and to write to you the names of the men who were leading them, and we asked them for the list of names of those who were at their head.

12But they answered us, saying, “We are servants of the Lord, who created heaven and earth.”

13And the house was being built over many years before the time of a great and mighty king of Israel, and it was completed.

14And because our fathers, having provoked him, sinned against the Lord of Israel, the heavenly One, he gave them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of the Chaldeans;

15They also tore down the house and burned it, and they took the people captive to Babylon.

16In the first year of Cyrus reigning over the land of Babylonia, King Cyrus wrote that this house should be built,

17And the holy vessels, the gold and the silver ones, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried out from the house in Jerusalem and deposited in his own temple—Cyrus the king again brought them out from the temple in Babylon, and they were handed over to Zerubbabel and to Sanabassar the governor.

18And he was commanded to bring back all these vessels, to put them in the temple in Jerusalem, and that the temple of the Lord should be built on its site.

19Then Sanabassar came and laid the foundations of the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, and from that time until now it has been under construction and has not reached completion.

20Now then, let it be determined, O king; let a search be made in the royal archives of my lord the king in Babylon,

21And if it is found that the building of the house of the Lord in Jerusalem was done with the approval of Cyrus the king, and if it seems good to our lord the king, let him send us word about these matters.

22Then King Darius ordered a search to be made in the archives kept in Babylon, and in Ecbatana, the fortress in the land of Media, a scroll was found in which these things had been recorded:

23In the first year of the reign of Cyrus, King Cyrus gave orders that the house of the Lord in Jerusalem should be built, where they offer continual sacrifices by fire,

24Let them offer sacrifices with continual fire, whose height is sixty cubits and width sixty cubits, with three courses of polished stone and one course of new local timber; and let the expense be given from the house of Cyrus the king.

25And the holy vessels of the house of the Lord, both the gold and the silver ones, which Nebuchadnezzar carried out from the house in Jerusalem and took to Babylon, are to be restored to the house in Jerusalem where they were placed, so that they may be set there.

26He also ordered Sisinnes, governor of Syria and Phoenicia, and Sathrabuzanes and their associates and the appointed governors in Syria and Phoenicia, to keep away from the place, but to leave Zerubbabel, the servant of the Lord and governor of Judea, and the elders of the Jews alone.

27And I also gave orders that it be fully rebuilt, and that attention be given so that they may work together with those from the captivity of Judea until the house of the Lord is finished;

28and from the tribute of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, support is to be given carefully to these men for sacrifice to the Lord, to Zerubbabel the governor, for bulls and rams and lambs,

29Likewise also wheat and salt and wine and oil continually year by year, as the priests in Jerusalem may direct, are to be used up day by day without dispute,

30so that libations may be offered to God Most High for the king and his sons, and that they may pray for them.

31And issue an order that if anyone transgresses any part of what has been written and nullifies it, a beam shall be taken from his own property and he shall be hanged on it, and his possessions shall become royal property.

32Therefore may the Lord, whose name has been invoked there, destroy every king and nation that stretches out its hand to hinder or to harm that house of the Lord there in Jerusalem.

33I, King Darius, have decreed that this be done carefully according to these instructions.