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          DASV: Ezra 6    

1 Then Darius the king made a decree and a search was made in
the treasury archives that were stored in Babylon.
2 A scroll was found in the palace at Ecbatana that is in the
province of Media. In it was written: "A record:
3 In the first year of king Cyrus, he made a decree concerning
the temple of God at Jerusalem: 'Let the temple be rebuilt as a
place where they may offer sacrifices. Let its foundations be
laid 90 feet high and 90 feet wide,
4 with three courses of large stones and one course of timber.
Let its cost be paid for out of the royal treasury.
5 Also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God,
which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple at Jerusalem and
brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back to the temple
at Jerusalem. Let everyone of them be put back in their place
in the temple of God.'"

6 Darius ordered: "Now Tattenai, governor of the province west
of the Euphrates River, Shethar-bozenai, and your associates
the officials who are also in the province west of the Euphrates
River should get away from there.
7 Leave the work on this temple of God alone. Let the governor
of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this temple of
God on its original site.
8 Moreover I make a decree that you are to assist the elders of
the Jews in the rebuilding of this temple of God. The cost is
to be paid in full without delay from the royal treasury and from
the taxes collected in the province west of the Euphrates River
so that their work will not be delayed.
9 Whatever is needed, whether young bulls, rams, or lambs for burnt
offerings to the God of heaven, along with wheat, salt, wine,
and oil, as required by the priests in Jerusalem, let it be
given to them daily without fail,
10 so that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven,
and pray for the life of the king and his sons.
11 Also I have made a decree, that whoever alters this edict, let a
beam be pulled out of his house, and let him be lifted up and
impaled on it. Let his house be turned into a pile of rubble.
12 May God who has made his name to dwell there overthrow any king
or people that puts out their hand to alter this decree, to destroy
this temple of God at Jerusalem. I Darius have made a decree.
Let it be done with all diligence."

13 Then Tattenai, the governor of the province west of the Euphrates
River, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates, because Darius the
king had sent it, implemented it with all diligence.
14 So the elders of the Jews continued building and prospered,
accompanied by the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah
the son of Iddo. They built and finished it, according to the
commandment of the God of Israel and the decree of Cyrus, Darius
and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia.

15 The temple was finished on the third day of the month Adar,
in the sixth year of the reign of king Darius.
16 The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the
rest of the exiles, celebrated the dedication of this temple
of God with joy.
17 They offered at the dedication of this temple of God 100 bulls,
200 rams, 400 lambs, along with a sin offering for all Israel
of 12 male goats, according to the number of the tribes
of Israel.
18 They appointed the priests by their divisions, and the Levites
by their divisions, for the service of God in Jerusalem; as it
is written in the book of Moses.
19 The exiles kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the
first month.
20 For the priests and Levites had purified themselves and
all of them were clean. They killed the Passover lamb for all
the returned exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves.
21 The Israelites who had come back from captivity, along with
those who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of
the nations of the land to seek the LORD, the God of Israel ate
22 and kept the feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy;
for the LORD had made them joyful and had turned the heart
of the king of Assyria favorably toward them, to assist them
in the work of the temple of God, the God of Israel.

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