With this money you should be sure to purchase bulls, rams, and lambs, along with the appropriate ¹  meal offerings and libations. You should bring them to the altar of the temple of your God which is in Jerusalem.

Due to the fact that the good hand of our God was on us, they brought us a skilled man, from the descendants of Mahli the son of Levi son of Israel. This man was Sherebiah, ¹  who was accompanied by his sons and brothers, ²  18 men,

Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak ¹  and his priestly colleagues ²  and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his colleagues ³  started to build ⁴  the altar of the God of Israel so they could offer burnt offerings on it as required by ⁵  the law of Moses the man of God.

In the first year of his reign, ¹  King Cyrus gave orders concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem: ²  ‘Let the temple be rebuilt as a place where sacrifices are offered. Let its foundations be set in place. ³  Its height is to be ninety feet and its width ninety ⁴  feet, ⁵ 

May God who makes his name to reside there overthrow any king or nation ¹  who reaches out ²  to cause such change so as to destroy this temple of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have given orders. Let them be carried out with precision!”

“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 –

which you commanded us through your servants the prophets with these words: ¹  ‘The land that you are entering to possess is a land defiled by the impurities of the local residents! ²  With their abominations they have filled it from one end to the other with their filthiness.

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.

So the exiles proceeded accordingly. Ezra the priest separated out ¹  by name men who were leaders in their family groups. ²  They sat down to consider this matter on the first day of the tenth month,

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.