1Then king Darius commanded, and they reckoned, or sought, in the biblet of books, which books were kept in Babylon.

2And one book was found in Ecbatana, which is a castle in the province of Media, and such a sentence of the king was written therein.

3In the first year of king Cyrus, Cyrus the king deemed, or ordained, that the house of God, which is in Jerusalem, should be builded in the place where they offered sacrifices, and that they set a foundament supporting the height of sixty cubits, and the length of sixty cubits,

4and set they three orders of stones unpolished, and so the orders of new wood. And costs thereto should be given of the king’s house.

5But also the golden and silveren vessels of God’s temple, which Nebu-chadnezzar took from the temple of Jerusalem, and brought them to Babylon, be they yielded, and borne again into the temple of Jerusalem, and into their place, which vessels also be set [or put] in the temple of God.

6Now therefore Tatnai, duke of the country that is beyond the flood, and Shetharboznai, and your counsellors, Apharsachites, which be beyond the flood, depart ye far from them;

7and suffer ye, that that temple of God be made of the duke of Jews, and of the elder men of them; and that they build that house of God in his place.

8But also it is commanded of me, that that behooveth to be made of those priests of Jews, that the house of God be builded; that is, that costs be given busily to those men of the ark of the king, that is, of the tributes, that be given of the country beyond the flood, lest the work be hindered.

9That if it be needed, give they both calves, and lambs, and kids into burnt sacrifice to [the] God of heaven; wheat, salt, and wine, and oil, by the custom of priests that be in Jerusalem, be given to them by each day, that no complaint be in anything.

10And offer they offerings to [the] God of heaven; and pray they for the life of the king, and of his sons.

11Therefore this sentence is set of me, that if any man change this behest, a wood be taken of his house, and be it raised up, and be he hanged there-on; soothly his house be forfeited.

12And God, that maketh his name to dwell there, destroy all the realms and people, that hold forth their hand to impugn and destroy that house of God, which is in Jerusalem. I Darius have deemed the sentence, which I will be fulfilled diligently.

13Therefore Tatnai, duke of the coun-try beyond the flood, and Shetharboz-nai, and his counsellors, did execution, either fulfilled, so diligently, by that that king Darius had commanded.

14Soothly the elder men of Jews builded, and had prosperity, by the prophecy of Haggai, the prophet, and of Zechariah, the son of Iddo; and they builded, and made, for [the] God of Israel commanded, and for Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia, commanded;

15and they performed or built this house of God till to the third day of the month Adar, which is the sixth year of the realm of king Darius.

16And the sons of Israel, the priests and deacons [or Levites], and the others of the sons of transmigration, that is, of them that came from the transmigration, made the hallowing of God’s house in joy;

17and offered, in the hallowing of God’s house, an hundred calves, two hundred wethers, four hundred lambs, twelve bucks of goats for the sin of all Israel, by the number of the lineages of Israel.

18And they ordained priests in their orders, and deacons [or Levites] in their whiles, upon the works of God in Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.

19And the sons of transmigration made pask, in the fourteenth day of the first month.

20For the priests and deacons [or Levites] as one man were cleansed, all they were clean to offer pask to all the sons of transmigration, and to their brethren priests, and to themselves.

21And the sons of Israel ate, that turned again from the transmigration, and each man ate, that had separated himself from all the defouling of heathen men of the land, for to seek the Lord God of Israel.

22And they made the solemnity of therf loaves seven days in gladness; for the Lord had made them glad, and had turned the heart of the king of Assur to them, that he would help their hands in the work of the house of the Lord God of Israel.