Study Desk

"In the first year of King Cyrus, Cyrus the king said that this was to be done about the house of God at Jerusalem: ‘Let the house of God, the place where burnt gifts are given in worship, be built again with a good base. It should be sixteen times taller than a man, and as wide as thirty long steps.

Let the gold and silver objects which Nebuchadnezzar took from the house of God in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon be returned to their places in the house of God in Jerusalem. You must put them in the house of God.'

Leave this work on the house of God alone. Let the leaders of the Jews build this house of God again where it stood before.

Also, I am making it known what you are to do for these leaders of Judah for the building of this house of God. All of it is to be paid for from the king's money out of the taxes from the lands on the other side of the River. And waste no time to get it to them.

Be sure to give them each day whatever is needed, young bulls, rams and lambs for a burnt gift to the God of heaven, and grain, salt, wine, and oil for pouring.

This is so they may give pleasing gifts in worship to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons.

May the God Who has caused His name to be there take away the power of any king or people who will try to change what I have said, so as to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have told this to you. Let it be done with much care."

The leaders of the Jews did well in building, through the words spoken by Haggai the man who spoke for God and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished building as they had been told to do by the God of Israel, and by Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.

The house of God was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the rule of King Darius.

The people of Israel, the religious leaders, the Levites, and the rest of the people who returned from Babylon, set apart this house of God with joy.

To set apart this house of God they gave 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs. For a sin gift for all Israel they gave twelve male goats, one for each number of the families of Israel.

Then they put the religious leaders and the Levites into groups by the work they were to do for God in Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.

It was eaten by the people of Israel who returned from Babylon and all those who had separated themselves from the sin of the nations of the land to join them and to look for the Lord God of Israel.

They kept the Special Supper of Bread Without Yeast for seven days with joy, for the Lord had made them very happy. He had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to give them strength in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.

This Ezra went up from Babylon. He was a writer who knew well the Law of Moses which the Lord God of Israel had given. The king gave him everything he asked for, because the Lord his God was good to him.

Some of the sons of Israel and some of the religious leaders, the Levites, the singers, the gate-keepers and the servants of the house of God went up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes.

He left Babylon on the first day of the first month, and came to Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month, because the good hand of his God was upon him.

"Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the religious leader, the writer who knows the Law of the God of heaven: Peace. And now

For you are sent by the king and his seven men of wisdom to see if the Law of your God which is in your hand is being obeyed in Judah and Jerusalem.

Take the silver and gold which the king and his men of wisdom have given because they wanted to give to the God of Israel, Whose house is in Jerusalem.