Ezra 6:11-22 ▼

11 And from me is set a decree that any man who changes this command, let a timber be pulled from his house and raised up, and let him be hanged on it, and let his house be made a dunghill because of this.

12 And may the God who caused His name to dwell there destroy any king or people who put their hand to alter it, or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have set a decree; let it diligently be done.

13 Then Tattenai the governor beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and their companions, according to that which Darius the king had sent, thus did diligently.

14 And the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo. And they built and finished it by the decree of the God of Israel, and by the decree of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.

15 And this temple was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.

16 And the sons of Israel made—and the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the sons of the captivity—the dedication of this house of God with joy.

17 And they offered sacrifices for the dedication of this house of God, a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and twelve male goats as a sin offering for all Israel, by the number of the tribes of Israel.

18 And they assigned the priests in their divisions, and Levites in their groups, over the service of God that is in Jerusalem, as it is written in the Book of Moses.

19 And the sons of the captivity kept the Passover on the fourteenth of the first month.

20 For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves as one; all of them were pure. And they slaughtered the Passover for all the sons of the captivity, and for their brothers the priests, and for themselves.

21 And the sons of Israel who had returned from the captivity, with all who had separated themselves from the filth of the peoples of the land to them, to seek YHWH, God of Israel, ate together,

22 and they kept the Feast of the Unleavened seven days with joy, for YHWH had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.