Ezra 5-7

Common English Bible

Work on God’s house continues

5 Then the prophet Haggai and the prophet Zechariah, Iddo’s son, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of Israel’s God who was over them. ²Subsequently, Zerubbabel, Shealtiel’s son, and Jeshua, Jozadak’s son, began to rebuild God’s house in Jerusalem. God’s prophets were with them, helping them.

³At the same time, Tattenai, the governor of the province Beyond the River, and Shethar-bozenai and their colleagues came to them and spoke to them, asking, “Who authorized you to build this house and finish preparing^[a] this building material?”^[b] ⁴They^[c] also asked them, “What are the names of the people who are building this building?” ⁵But their God looked after the elders of the Jews, and they didn’t stop them until a report reached Darius and a letter with his response had arrived.

Writing to King Darius

⁶This is a copy of the letter that Tattenai, the governor of the province Beyond the River, and Shethar-bozenai and his colleagues the officials who were in the province Beyond the River sent to King Darius. ⁷In the message they sent him, the following was written:

To King Darius, all peace! ⁸Let the king know that we went to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God. It is being built with dressed stone and with timber set into the walls. This work makes good progress and prospers in their hands. ⁹We asked those elders, “Who authorized you to build this house and to complete the preparation of this material?” ¹⁰We also asked them their names so that we could write down the names of the leaders for your information.

¹¹This was their reply to us: “We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth. We are rebuilding the house that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and completed. ¹²But because our ancestors angered the God of heaven, he gave them over into the power of Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house and deported the people to Babylonia. ¹³However, in the first year of his rule, Babylon’s King Cyrus issued a decree to rebuild this house of God. ¹⁴King Cyrus also took the gold and silver equipment from God’s house out of the temple in Babylon (the ones that Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and placed in the temple in Babylon) and gave them to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he had appointed governor. ¹⁵Cyrus said to him, ‘Take this equipment and go and put it in Jerusalem’s temple, and let God’s house be rebuilt on its original site.’ ¹⁶Then Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of God’s house in Jerusalem. From then until now the rebuilding work has continued but is not yet complete.”

¹⁷And now, if it seems good to the king, may a search be made in the royal archives in Babylon to see if King Cyrus had issued a decree to rebuild this house of God in Jerusalem. Then may the king be pleased to send us his decision about this matter.

Darius responds

6 Then King Darius made a decree, and they searched the archives where the documents were stored in Babylon. ²But a scroll was found in Ecbatana, the capital of the province of Media, on which was written the following:

A memorandum— ³In the first year of his rule, King Cyrus made a decree: Concerning God’s house in Jerusalem: Let the house at the place where they offered sacrifices be rebuilt and let its foundations be retained. Its height will be ninety feet and its width ninety feet, ⁴with three layers of dressed stones and one^[d] layer of timber. The cost will be paid from the royal treasury. ⁵In addition, the gold and silver equipment from God’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, is to be restored, that is, brought back to Jerusalem and put in their proper place in God’s house.

⁶Now you, Tattenai, governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and you, their colleagues, the officials in the province Beyond the River, keep away! ⁷Leave the work on this house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its original site.

⁸I also issue a decree about what you should do to help these elders of the Jews as they rebuild this house of God: The total cost is to be paid to these people, and without delay, from the royal revenue that is made up of the tribute of the province Beyond the River. ⁹And whatever is needed—young bulls, rams, or sheep for entirely burned offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, or oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem—let that be given to them day by day without fail ¹⁰so that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the lives of the king and his sons.

¹¹I also decree that if anyone disobeys this edict, a beam is to be pulled out of the house of the guilty party, and the guilty party will then be impaled upon it. The house will be turned into a trash heap.

¹²May the God who has established his name there overthrow any king or people who try to change this order or to destroy God’s house in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have decreed it; let it be done with all diligence.

God’s house is completed and dedicated

¹³Then Tattenai, the governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and their colleagues carried out the order of King Darius with all diligence. ¹⁴So the elders of the Jews built and prospered because of the prophesying of the prophet Haggai and Zechariah, Iddo’s son. They finished building by the command of Israel’s God and of Cyrus, Darius, and King Artaxerxes of Persia. ¹⁵This house was completed on the third day of the month of Adar,^[e] in the sixth year of the rule of King Darius.

¹⁶Then the Israelites, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles joyfully celebrated the dedication of this house of God. ¹⁷At the dedication of this house of God, they offered one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and as a purification offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. ¹⁸They set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their sections for the service of God in Jerusalem, as it is written in the scroll from Moses.

¹⁹^[f] On the fourteenth day of the first month,^[g] the returned exiles celebrated the Passover. ²⁰All of the priests and the Levites had purified themselves; all of them were clean. They slaughtered the Passover animals for all the returned exiles, their fellow priests, and themselves. ²¹The Israelites who had returned from exile, together with all those who had joined them by separating themselves from the pollutions of the nations of the land to worship the Lord, the God of Israel, ate the Passover meal.^[h]

²²They also joyfully celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days, because the Lord had made them joyful by changing the attitude of the king of Assyria toward them so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.

Introduction to Ezra

7 After this, in the rule of Persia’s King Artaxerxes, Ezra son of Seraiah son of Azariah son of Hilkiah ²son of Shallum son of Zadok son of Ahitub ³son of Amariah son of Azariah son of Meraioth ⁴son of Zerahiah son of Uzzi son of Bukki ⁵son of Abishua son of Phinehas son of Eleazar son of Aaron the chief priest— ⁶this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a scribe skilled in the Instruction from Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given. Moreover, the king gave him everything he requested because the Lord his God’s power was with him.

⁷Some of the Israelites and some of the priests and the Levites, the singers and gatekeepers and the temple servants also came up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes. ⁸They reached Jerusalem in the fifth month, in the seventh year of the king. ⁹The journey from Babylon began on the first day of the first month, and they came to Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month, for the gracious hand of his God was upon him. ¹⁰Ezra had determined to study and perform the Lord’s Instruction, and to teach law and justice in Israel.

Letter from Artaxerxes

¹¹This is a copy of the letter that Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest and scribe, a scholar of the text of the Lord’s commandments and his requirements for Israel:

¹²^[i] Artaxerxes, king of kings,

to Ezra the priest, the scribe of the

Instruction from the God of heaven.

Peace!^[j]

And now ¹³I decree that any of the people of Israel or their priests or Levites in my kingdom who volunteer to go to Jerusalem with you may go. ¹⁴You are sent by the king and his seven counselors to investigate Judah and Jerusalem according to the Instruction from your God, which is in your hand.

¹⁵You should bring the silver and gold that the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem, ¹⁶together with any of the silver and gold that you find in the entire province of Babylonia. You should also bring the spontaneous gifts of the people and the priests, given freely for God’s house in Jerusalem. ¹⁷With this money you will be careful to buy bulls, rams, and lambs, as well as their grain offerings and their drink offerings. And you will offer them on the altar of God’s house in Jerusalem. ¹⁸As long as it is God’s will, you and your colleagues may do what you think best with the rest of the silver and gold. ¹⁹You will deliver the equipment that has been given to you for the service of God’s house to the God of Jerusalem. ²⁰If anything else is required for God’s house that you are responsible to provide, you may provide it from the royal treasury.

²¹I, King Artaxerxes, decree to all of the treasurers in the province Beyond the River: Whatever Ezra the priest and scribe of the Instruction from the God of heaven requires of you, it must be provided precisely, ²²even up to one hundred kikkars of silver, one hundred kors of wheat, one hundred baths^[k] of wine, one hundred baths of oil, and unlimited salt. ²³Whatever the God of heaven commands will be done carefully for the house of the God of heaven, or wrath will come upon the realm of the king and his heirs. ²⁴You must also know that it is illegal for you to charge tribute, custom, or dues on any of the priests and Levites, the singers, the doorkeepers, the temple servants, or other servants of this house of God.

²⁵And you, Ezra, based on the divine wisdom that you have, appoint supervisors and judges to adjudicate among all the people in the province Beyond the River who know the laws of your God. You will also teach those who do not know them. ²⁶Let judgment be strictly carried out upon anyone who does not obey the Instruction from your God and the law of your king, including death, banishment, confiscation of property, or imprisonment.

Ezra prepares to leave

²⁷Bless the Lord, the God of our ancestors, who has moved the king to glorify the Lord’s house in Jerusalem, ²⁸and who has demonstrated his graciousness for me before the king and his counselors and all the king’s mighty officers. I took courage because the Lord my God’s power was with me. I gathered leaders from Israel to go up with me.