Ezra 6

The Decree of Darius

¹Thus King Darius ordered a search of the archives stored in the treasury of Babylon. ²And a scroll was found in the fortress of Ecbatana, in the province of Media, with the following written on it:

Memorandum:

• EZR 6:2[NOTE]ECBATANA. A Persian capital in the mountains of Media, today Hamadan in Iran. The kings spent the hot summers there, so it makes sense that a copy of Cyrus's order was kept there and not in Babylon.

³In the first year of King Cyrus, he issued a decree concerning the house of God in Jerusalem:

Let the house be rebuilt as a place for offering sacrifices, and let its foundations be firmly laid. It is to be ninety feet high and ninety feet wide, ⁴with three layers of cut stones and one of timbers. The costs are to be paid from the royal treasury.

• EZR 6:3[TEXT]HOW BIG? In the Aramaic the numbers are 60 and 60, about 90 feet. Solomon's temple was about 45 feet high, 30 in the Hebrew, 1 Kings 6:2. Many think these numbers were the most the king would pay for, not the real size.

⁵Furthermore, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and carried to Babylon, must also be returned to the temple in Jerusalem and deposited in the house of God.

⁶Therefore Darius decreed:

To Tattenai governor of the region west of the Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and your associates and officials in the region:

You must stay away from that place! ⁷Leave this work on the house of God alone. Let the governor and elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its original site.

⁸I hereby decree what you must do for these elders of the Jews who are rebuilding this house of God:

The cost is to be paid in full to these men from the royal treasury out of the taxes of the provinces west of the Euphrates, so that the work will not be hindered. ⁹Whatever is needed—young bulls, rams, and lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, as well as wheat, salt, wine, and oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem—must be given to them daily without fail. ¹⁰Then they will be able to offer sacrifices of a sweet aroma to the God of heaven and to pray for the lives of the king and his sons.

¹¹I also decree that if any man interferes with this directive, a beam is to be torn from his house and raised up, and he is to be impaled on it. And his own house shall be made a pile of rubble for this offense. ¹²May God, who has caused His Name to dwell there, overthrow any king or people who lifts a hand to alter this decree or to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem.

• EZR 6:11[NOTE]IMPALED. Darius meant it. On the Behistun cliff he says he impaled rebel leaders. See the Behistun Field Notes page.

I, Darius, have issued the decree. Let it be carried out with diligence.

The Temple Completed

¹³In response, Tattenai the governor of the region west of the Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates diligently carried out what King Darius had decreed. ¹⁴So the Jewish elders built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo.

They finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia. ¹⁵And this temple was completed on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.

• EZR 6:14[FULFILLS]My house shall be built in Jerusalem; My cities shall again spread through prosperity ← ZECH 1:16-17
• EZR 6:14[FULFILLS]Zerubbabel laid the temple foundation and his hands would also finish it ← ZECH 4:9
• EZR 6:14[NOTE]ARTAXERXES TOO. Artaxerxes ruled after the temple was done, but he gave gifts for it later, 7:15 to 24, so his name is listed with the kings who helped.
• EZR 6:15[NOTE]FINISHED. The month of Adar in Darius's sixth year was early 515 BC. The first temple burned in 586 BC, so the house of God lay in ruins about seventy years.

Dedication of the Temple

¹⁶Then the people of Israel—the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy.

¹⁷For the dedication of the house of God they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and a sin offering for all Israel of twelve male goats, one for each tribe of Israel.

¹⁸They also appointed the priests by their divisions and the Levites by their groups to the service of God in Jerusalem, according to what is written in the Book of Moses.

The Returned Exiles Keep the Passover

¹⁹On the fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles kept the Passover. ²⁰All the priests and Levites had purified themselves and were ceremonially clean.

And the Levites slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their priestly brothers, and for themselves. ²¹The Israelites who had returned from exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to seek Yahweh, the God of Israel.

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

• EZR 6:22[HEART]Yahweh made them joyful and turned the king's heart toward them, so he helped with God's house.
• EZR 6:22[NOTE]KING OF ASSYRIA. This is Darius of Persia. He ruled the old land of Assyria, so the writer gives him the old title.