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But they answered vs wt these wordes, and sayde: We are the seruautes of the God of heauen and earth, and buylde the house yt was buylded many yeares agoo, which a greate kynge of Israel buylded and set vp.

Howbeit whan oure fathers prouoked the God of heauen vnto wrath, he gaue them ouer in the hande of Nabuchodonosor the kynge of Babilon the Caldee, which brake downe this house, & caried ye people awaye vnto Babilon.

Neuertheles in the first yeare of Cyrus the kynge of Babilon, ye same kynge Cyrus commaunded to buylde this house of God:

for the vessels of golde and siluer in the house of God, which Nabuchodonosor toke out of the temple at Ierusale, and broughte the in to ye temple at Babilon, those dyd Cyrus the kynge take out of ye temple at Babilon, and delyuered them vnto Se?bazer by name, whom he made Debyte,

and sayde vnto him: Take these vessels, go thy waye and brynge them vnto the temple at Ierusalem, and let the house of God be buylded in his place.

Then came the same Se?bazar, and layed ye foundacion of the house of God at Ierusalem. Sence that tyme hath it bene in buyldinge, and yet is it not fynished.

Yf it please ye kynge now, let there be search made in ye kynges treasure house which is at Babilon, whether it haue bene kynge Cyrus commaundement, that the house of God at Ierusalem shulde be buylded: & sende vs ye kynges mynde concernynge the same.

In the first yeare of kynge Cyrus, comaunded the same kynge Cyrus to buylde ye house of God at Ierusalem, in the place where the sacrifice is made, & to laye the foundacion to beare thre score cubites heyght, & thre score cubites bredth,

And the golde and syluer vessell of ye house of God (which Nabuchodonosor toke out of the temple at Ierusalem, and broughte vnto Babilon) shalbe restored agayne, yt they maye be broughte vnto the temple at Ierusale to their place in to the house of God.

Let them worke in ye house of God, that the Debyte of ye Iewes and their Elders maye buylde the house of God in his place.

I haue commaunded also, what shalbe done to ye Elders of Iuda for the buyldinge of the house of God, that there shal diligently be take of the kynges goodes, euen of the rentes beyonde the water, & geuen vnto the men, and that they be not hyndered.

And yf they haue nede of calues, lambes, or goates for the burntoffrynge vnto ye God of heauen, wheate, salt, wyne and oyle, after the custome of the prestes at Ierusalem, there shalbe geuen them daylie as is acordinge: and se that this be not done necligetly,

that they maye offre swete sauoures vnto ye God of heauen, and praye for the kynges lyfe, and for his children.

But the God that dwelleth in heauen, destroye all kynges and people, that put to their hade to alter and to breake downe the house of God at Ierusalem. I Darius haue commaunded, that this be diligently done.

And ye Elders of the Iewes buylded, and they prospered thorow the prophecienge of Aggeus the prophet and Zachary the sonne of Iddo: and they buylded, and set vp the worke, acordinge to the commaundement of the God of Israel, and after the commaundement of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerses kynges of Persia.

And the children of Israel, the prestes, the Leuites, and the other children of ye captyuite helde the dedicacion of the house of God with ioye,

and offred at the dedicacion of the house of God, an hundreth calues, two hundreth lambes, foure hundreth goates: and for the synofferynge for all Israel, twolue he goates, acordinge to the nombre of the trybes of Israel,

and set the prestes in their courses, and ye Leuites in their offices, to mynister vnto God which is at Ierusale, as it is wrytten in the boke of Moses.

And the childre of Israel which were come agayne out of captiuyte, and all soch as had separated them selues vnto them from the fylthinesse of the Heythen in the londe, to seke the LORDE God of Israel, ate

& helde the feast of vnleueded bred seuen dayes with ioye: for the LORDE had made them glad, and turned the hert of the kynge of Assur vnto the, so that their handes were strengthed in the worke of the house of God, which is ye God of Israel.