Ezra 5

₁The prophet Haggai and the prophet Zechariah, son of Iddo, came to the people of Judah and Jerusalem and told them what God said. The God of Israel, who rules over the people of Judah, sent them. ₂Then Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, son of Jozadak, started building the temple in Jerusalem again. The prophets of God were with them and helped them.

₃When they started to build, Tattenai, the governor of the lands west of the Euphrates River, and Shethar-Bozenai and other officials with them went to the people of Judah and asked them: ‘Who said you may build this temple and finish it?’ ₄They also asked: ‘Who are the people who are building this temple? What are their names?’

₅But God protected the leaders of the people of Judah, and they could go on with their work while they told Darius what had happened. Then he decided that they could build the temple.

₆Tattenai, governor of the lands west of the Euphrates River, and Shethar-Bozenai and other important_officials west of the Euphrates River sent a letter to King Darius. ₇They told him what had happened and they wrote:

‘To King Darius: We hope you are well. ₈Your_Majesty, we want you to know that we went to the province of Judah. We saw a big temple there. They are building the walls of the temple with big rocks and wood. They are working very hard and the building is going up quickly. ₉We asked their leaders: “Who said you may build this temple and repair the wall?” ₁₀We also asked them who their leaders were so that we could tell you.

₁₁They answered us and said: “We are servants of the God of heaven and earth and we are building the temple again that was here long ago. An important king_of_Israel built the temple long ago and he finished it. ₁₂But our forefathers made the God of heaven angry and then He sent King Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon to defeat them. King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple and he caught the people and took them away to the land of Babylon. ₁₃But in the first year after Cyrus became king of Babylon, he told us to build this temple again. ₁₄King Cyrus also gave us back the golden and silver things that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar had put these things in the temple of his gods in Babylon. King Cyrus took them from that temple in Babylon and he gave them to Sheshbazzar, the man whom he chose to be governor of Judah.

₁₅Cyrus told Sheshbazzar to take these things and put them in the temple in Jerusalem. He also told him to make sure that the people built the temple where it was before.

₁₆Sheshbazzar then came and built the foundations of this temple. From that time we have been building the temple, but we are not finished yet.”

₁₇Your_Majesty, please send someone to look in the books in the store rooms of the king in Babylon to see if it is true that King Cyrus said that they must build the temple in Jerusalem and please let us know what you have decided.’