Ezra 6
Darius supports Cyrus’s decree
Then King Darius gave the order and Babylon’s archives were searched. In Ecbatana (the citadel in the province of Media) they found a scroll that read
“A record:
In Cyrus’s first year as king, he gave an order concerning God’s house in Jerusalem. Let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered, and let its foundations be retained. It should be 90 feet tall, and 90 feet wide with three layers of large stones and one layer of timber. Let the cost be paid from the royal bank account. Also, find the gold and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar took from Jerusalem’s temple and bring them back to the temple in Jerusalem. Each one should be restored to its rightful place in God’s house.”
Then he wrote:
“Now Governor Tattenai and Shethar-bozenai, you and all your associates can leave them alone. Let them work on God’s house in peace. Let the the Jewish governors and elders rebuild God’s house on it’s proper site. And here’s an order for you: pay their expenses in full from the royal bank account right away. That will be your province’s tribute. Give Jerusalem’s priests whatever they need—bulls, rams, sheep, wheat, salt, wine, or oil—for burt offerings to heaven’s God. Give them whatever they need every day without missing a day so that they can offer pleasing sacrifices to heaven’s God and pray for their king and his sons. Here’s another order: if anyone alters my first order, I’ll pull a bean out of his house and impale him with it so that his house becomes a pile of crap. May the God who decided to live there overthrow anyone who tries to alter this order or get in the way of building God’s house in Jerusalem. I, Darius sign this decree. Do everything you can to carry it out.”
Construction of second temple is completed
Then, following King Darius’s orders, governor Tattenai, Shethar-bozenai, and all their associates diligently carried out Darius’s wishes. The Jewish elders continued to successfully build through Haggai and Zechariah’s prophecies. They finished their building like it had been ordered by Israel’s God, Cyrus, Darius, and Persia’s King Artaxerxes. It was finished on the third day in the month of Adar in the 6th year of Darius’s reign as king.
Israel’s people, the priests, Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles joyfully celebrated the dedication of God’s house. At the dedication ceremony, they offered 100 bulls, 200 rams, and 400 lambs, plus a sin offering of 12 male goats (one for each of Israel’s tribes). They stationed the priests and Levites in their positions to serve God at Jerusalem just like Moses’s Book had instructed.
On the 14th day of the first month, the returned exiles kept the Passover. The priests and Levites had purified themselves together so that all of them were pure. They slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves. The returned exiles ate it along with everyone who joined them in rejecting the uncleanliness of the locals to worship Israel’s God the Existing One. They continued the no-yeast Flatbread Feast for seven days because of how happy they were about the Existing One changing the heart of Assyria’s king to help them build a house for Israel’s God.