All the assembly replied in a loud voice: “We will do just as you have said! ¹ 

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.”

¹ In the first ²  year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order to fulfill the Lord’s message ³  spoken through ⁴  Jeremiah, ⁵  the Lord stirred the mind ⁶  of King Cyrus of Persia. He disseminated ⁷  a proclamation ⁸  throughout his entire kingdom, announcing in a written edict ⁹  the following:

But God was watching over ¹  the elders of Judah, and they were not stopped ²  until a report could be dispatched ³  to Darius and a letter could be sent back concerning this.

From the days of our fathers until this very day our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities we, along with our kings and ¹  priests, have been delivered over by the local kings ²  to sword, captivity, plunder, and embarrassment – right up to the present time.

“I, King Artaxerxes, hereby issue orders to all the treasurers of ¹  Trans-Euphrates, that you precisely execute all that Ezra the priestly scribe of the law of the God of heaven may request of you –

the men of Lod, Hadid, and Ono: 725;

Furthermore let the gold and silver vessels of the temple of God, which Nebuchadnezzar brought from the temple in Jerusalem and carried to Babylon, be returned and brought to their proper place in the temple in Jerusalem. Let them be deposited in the temple of God.’

The report they sent to him was written as follows: ¹  “To King Darius: All greetings! ² 

Whatever is needed – whether oxen or rams or lambs or burnt offerings for the God of heaven or wheat or salt or wine or oil, as required by ¹  the priests who are in Jerusalem – must be given to them daily without any neglect,

And during the reign ¹  of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, ²  Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their colleagues ³  wrote to King Artaxerxes ⁴  of Persia. This letter ⁵  was first written in Aramaic but then translated. [Aramaic:] ⁶ 

They finished this temple on the third day of the month Adar, which is the sixth ¹  year of the reign of King Darius.

Then Tattenai governor of Trans-Euphrates, Shethar-Bozenai, and their colleagues acted accordingly – with precision, just as Darius the king had given instructions. ¹ 

I have now issued a decree ¹  that anyone in my kingdom from the people of Israel – even the priests and Levites – who wishes to do so may go up with you to Jerusalem. ² 

You may do whatever seems appropriate to you and your colleagues ¹  with the rest of the silver and the gold, in keeping with the will of your God.

I weighed out to them ¹  650 talents of silver, silver vessels worth 100 talents, ²  100 talents of gold,

These are the ones that came up from Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Kerub, Addon, and Immer (although they were unable to certify ¹  their family connection ²  or their ancestry, ³  as to whether they really were from Israel):

The priests, the Levites, some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants lived in their towns, and all the rest of Israel lived in their towns.

From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. However, the Lord’s temple was not at that time established. ¹ 

¹ Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who so moved in the heart of the king to so honor the temple of the Lord which is in Jerusalem!