¹Then Darius the king paid out a decree, and they inquired in the house of the books, where the treasures were coming there in Babylon.

²And there was found in Ecbatana, in the castle that is in Media, a roll; and in its midst was written a memorandum:

³In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king paid out a decree: the house of God in Jerusalem, let the house be built, the place where they sacrificed sacrifices, and let its foundation be borne up; its height sixty cubits, its width sixty cubits;

⁴three rows of the stone of the rolling, and a row of new wood; and the outlay shall be given from the house of the king.

⁵And also the vessels of the house of God, of gold and silver, which Nebuchadnezzar came and took from the palace that is in Jerusalem and bore along to Babylon, they shall return; and let it go to the palace that is in Jerusalem, to its place, and you shall coming in the house of God.

⁶Now, O Tattenai the governor of the region across the river, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associate officials who are in the region across the river, be far from there;

⁷leave the affairs of the house of God to the governor of Jewish and to the hoary of Jewish; let them build the house of God in its place.

⁸And a decree is paid out by me as to what you shall make for the hoary of Jewish to build the house of God: from the riches of the king, from the tribute of the region across the river, the outlay shall thoroughly be given to those men, that they not cease.

⁹And what is needed — the sons of the oxen and rams and lambs for burnt-offerings to the God of the heavens, wheats, salt, wine, and oil, as the word of the priests who are in Jerusalem — let it be given to them day in the day, that there be not anything lacking;

¹⁰that they may approach soothing offerings to the God of the heavens, and pray for the living of the king and his sons.

¹¹And a decree is paid out by me, that any man who shall change this matter, a wood shall be pulled away from his house, and he be raised and struck upon it, and his house shall be made rubble for this.

¹²And the God who nested his name there, let him overthrow any king and peoples who shall send his hand to change, to destroy the house of the God that is in Jerusalem. I, Darius, paid out a decree; let it thoroughly be made.

¹³Then Tattenai the governor of the region across the river, Shethar-Bozenai, and their associate, because of that which Darius the king sent, accordingly thoroughly made it.

¹⁴And the hoary of Jewish built and were promoted in the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo; and Israel built and completed it in the decree of the God of, and from the decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes the king of Persia.

¹⁵And this house was brought out on the third day of the month of Adar, which was the sixth year of the kingdom of Darius the king.

¹⁶And Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the sons of the exiles, made the dedication of the house of God in joy.

¹⁷And they approached for the dedication of the house of God a hundred oxen, a hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and the he-goats of the shes for the sin-offering over all Israel, twelve and ten, to the number of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁸And they set up the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their classes for the affairs of the God who is in Jerusalem, as the writing of the book of Moses.

¹⁹And the exile made the children of the passover on the fourteen of the first month.

²⁰For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves as one, all of them clean, and they slaughtered the passover to all the children of the exile, and to their brothers the priests, and to themselves.

²¹And the children of Israel who returned from the exile ate, and all that separated from the uncleanness of the nations of the land to them, to inquire of Yahweh the God of Israel.

²²And they made the festival of unleavened bread seven days in gladness, for Yahweh rejoiced them, and went partly round the heart of the king of Assyria over them, to harden their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.