Everything that the God of heaven has required should be precisely done for the temple of the God of heaven. Why should there be wrath ¹  against the empire of the king and his sons?

I sent them to Iddo, who was the leader in the place called Casiphia. I told them ¹  what to say to Iddo and his relatives, ²  who were the temple servants in ³  Casiphia, so they would bring us attendants for the temple of our God.

On the twelfth day of the first month we began traveling from the Ahava Canal to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from our enemy and from bandits ¹  along the way.

On the fourth day we weighed out the silver, the gold, and the vessels in the house of our God into the care ¹  of Meremoth son of Uriah, the priest, and Eleazar son of Phinehas, who were accompanied by Jozabad son of Jeshua and Noadiah son of Binnui, who were Levites.

The exiles who were returning from the captivity offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel – twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven male lambs, along with twelve male goats as a sin offering. All this was a burnt offering to the Lord.

O Lord God of Israel, you are righteous, for we are left as a remnant this day. Indeed, we stand before you in our guilt. However, because of this guilt ¹  no one can really stand before you.”

Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, from the descendants of Elam, ¹  addressed Ezra: “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying ²  foreign women from the local peoples. ³  Nonetheless, there is still hope for Israel in this regard. ⁴ 

Then Ezra got up from in front of the temple of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he stayed ¹  there, he did not eat food or drink water, for he was in mourning over the infidelity of the exiles.

All the men of Judah and Benjamin were gathered in Jerusalem within the three days. (It was in the ninth month, on the twentieth day of that month.) All the people sat in the square at the temple of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the rains.

In the second year after they had come to the temple of God in Jerusalem, ¹  in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak initiated the work, ²  along with the rest of their associates, ³  the priests and the Levites, and all those who were coming to Jerusalem from the exile. They appointed ⁴  the Levites who were at least twenty years old ⁵  to take charge of the work on the Lord’s temple.