Ezra 3-5

Evangelical Heritage Version

Beginning the Construction of the Second Temple

3 When the seventh month arrived and the Israelites were living in their own cities, the people gathered together in Jerusalem.

² Then Jeshua son of Jozadak with his fellow priests along with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel with his colleagues^[a] arose and built the altar of the God of Israel in order to offer burnt offerings upon it, as it is written in the Law of Moses, the man of God. ³ They set the altar on its foundations, although they were in terror of the peoples of the lands. They offered burnt offerings to the Lord upon it—burnt offerings in the evening and in the morning.

⁴ They observed the Festival of Shelters,^[b] according to the written directions, and they offered the daily burnt offerings in the number specified for each day of the festival. ⁵ After this, they offered the regular burnt offerings, those for the new moons, those for all the appointed assemblies of the Lord, and the offerings for everyone who was bringing a voluntary contribution to offer to the Lord. ⁶ From the first day of the seventh month, they began to offer burnt offerings, although the foundation of the temple of the Lord had not yet been laid.

⁷ They gave money to the stonemasons and craftsmen, and they gave food, drink, and olive oil to the Sidonians and Tyrians to pay them for bringing cedar logs from Lebanon to the seaport at Joppa, according to the authorization that had been given to them by Cyrus king of Persia.

⁸ In the second year after their arrival at the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak, along with the rest of their colleagues, the priests and the Levites, and everyone who returned from the captivity to Jerusalem began the work.

They appointed Levites who were twenty years old and older to supervise the work on the house for the Lord. ⁹ Jeshua together with his sons and brothers and Kadmiel with his sons (they were descendants of Judah^[c]) assumed supervision over those working on the house for God. (The Levites who were descendants of Henadad, along with their sons and brothers, also supervised.)

¹⁰ When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests, dressed in their robes, stood by with trumpets, and the Levites, the descendants of Asaph, stood by with cymbals to praise the Lord as prescribed by David king of Israel. ¹¹ They sang antiphonally to praise and thank the Lord:

All the people shouted loud praise to the Lord when the foundation of the House of the Lord was laid. ¹² However, when many of the older priests, Levites, and heads of families, who had seen the first house, saw this house being founded, they wept loudly, although many also raised their voices in a shout of joy. ¹³ The people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful cry from the sound of the people weeping, because the people were shouting loudly, and the sound could be heard far away.

Opposition to the Construction of the Second Temple

4 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, ² they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of the families. They said to them, “Let us build with you, because, like you, we seek your God, and we have been sacrificing to him^[d] since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.”

³ Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel said to them, “We will not permit you to join us in building a house for our God, because we ourselves will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, just as King Cyrus of Persia commanded us.”

⁴ Then the people of the land kept discouraging^[e] the people of Judah and kept trying to make them too frightened to build. ⁵ They kept bribing officials^[f] against them to try to frustrate their plans. They did this throughout all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

⁶ During the reign of Xerxes,^[g] at the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. ⁷ Then in Artaxerxes’ days, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabe’el, and the rest of his associates wrote to King Artaxerxes of Persia. A document was written in Aramaic and translated.^[h] What follows is the Aramaic version.^[i]

⁸ Rehum the head of the council and Shimshai the secretary wrote a letter concerning Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows:

²³ Then, when a copy of Artaxerxes’ document was read in the presence of Rehum, Shimshai the secretary, and their associates, they immediately went to the Judeans in Jerusalem, and they stopped them with armed force. ²⁴ In this way, the work on the house of God in Jerusalem was stopped. Also, it had previously been stopped until the second year^[m] of the reign of King Darius of Persia.^[n]

Completion of the Second Temple

5 Now the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah grandson^[o] of Iddo, prophesied to the Judeans who were in Judah^[p] and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. ² Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak began to build the house of the God who is in Jerusalem.^[q] The prophets of God were with them, supporting them.

³ At that time, Tattenai governor of Trans-Euphrates, together with Shethar Bozenai and their associates, came up to them and said this to them: “Who gave you an order to construct this building and to finish this project?” ⁴ They^[r] also said this to them: “What are the names of the men who are building this building?”

⁵ However, the eye of their God was on the Judean elders, and the officials did not make them stop until the report could go to Darius, and they could respond on the basis of a document concerning this matter.

⁶ This is a copy of the letter that Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar Bozenai and his associates, officials who are in Trans-Euphrates, sent to King Darius. ⁷ They sent him a report, and this is what was written in it: