Darius Decrees the Work Continue
6 1 Then King Darius issued a decree, and a search was made in the archive building where the treasures were stored in Babylon. 2 And a scroll was found at Ecbatana, in the fortress in the province of Media, and this is what was recorded in it:
3 In the first year of King Cyrus, Cyrus the king issued a decree concerning the house of God in Jerusalem: Let the house be rebuilt as a place for offering sacrifices, and let its foundations be retained. Its height is to be ninety feet and its width ninety feet, 4 with three courses of large stones and one course of timber. Let the cost be paid from the royal treasury. 5 And also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be returned and brought back to the temple in Jerusalem, each to its place; and you shall put them in the house of God.
6 Now therefore, Tattenai, governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and your associates, the officials in the province Beyond the River — keep far away from there. 7 Leave 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. 8 Moreover, I issue a decree concerning what you are to do for these elders of the Jews in the rebuilding of this house of God: the full cost is to be paid to these men from the royal treasury, from the taxes of the province Beyond the River, so that the work is not hindered. 9 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 — give it to them every day without fail, 10 so that they may offer sacrifices pleasing to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons. 11 I also issue a decree: if anyone violates 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 heap of rubble because of this. 12 And may the God who has placed his name there overthrow any king or people who tries to alter this decree or to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have issued this decree; let it be carried out diligently.
The Father's House Is Finished
13 Then Tattenai, the governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates carried it out diligently, just as King Darius had ordered. 14 So the elders of the Jews continued building and prospering, through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished building according to the command of our Father, the God of Israel, and according to the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia. 15 This house was completed on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. a a v15 Adar is the final month of the Jewish calendar, roughly equivalent to February–March.
16 Then the people of Israel — the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles — celebrated the dedication of this house of our Father with joy. 17 For the dedication of this house of our Father they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, and four hundred lambs, and, as a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. 18 And they installed the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their divisions for the service of our Father in Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.
The Exiles Keep the Passover
19 The returned exiles kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. 20 For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were clean. So they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves. 21 The people of Israel who had returned from exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the nations of the land to seek our Father, the God of Israel. 22 And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for our Father had filled them with joy and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them, to strengthen them in the work of the house of our Father, the God of Israel. b b v22 The Persian king is called 'king of Assyria' because Persia had absorbed the former Assyrian Empire.