Several factors resulted in the completion of the temple that the writer brought together in verse 14. The reference to Artaxerxes (v. 14; cf. 4:7-23) does not mean that he had a part in completing the temple. As I pointed out previously, he was the king who later supported the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. That action served to make the temple secure. He also contributed to the temple treasury (7:15-16, 21). Consequently mention of him was appropriate at this point.
"The most powerful word on earth at that time was the decree of a Persian king, but silently and mysteriously the king was being directed by an even more powerful divine word."95
The builders finished the temple on Adar 3 (in late February), 515 B.C. This was about four and one-half years after Haggai and Zechariah had gotten the builders moving again (in 520 B.C.). It was about 21 years after the Jews had laid the foundation (in 536 B.C.) and about 24 years after Cyrus had issued his decree allowing the Jews to return to Palestine (in 539 B.C.). It was 70 years after Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple (586 B.C.). Thus God fulfilled Jeremiah's prophecy that the captivity would last 70 years (Jer. 25:11; 29:10). Nebuchadnezzar burned the temple down in the fifth month of 586 B.C. (2 Kings 25:8-9) and the restoration Jews reopened it in the twelveth month of 515 B.C. Solomon's temple had stood for almost 400 years, but the second temple lasted longer, about 585 years, until Titus destroyed it in A.D. 70.
