They observed the Festival of Temporary Shelters ¹  as required ²  and offered the proper number of ³  daily burnt offerings according to the requirement for each day.

¹ These are the people ²  of the province who were going up, ³  from the captives of the exile whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had forced into exile in Babylon. They returned to Jerusalem ⁴  and Judah, each to his own city.

Let our leaders take steps ¹  on behalf of all the assembly. Let all those in our towns who have married foreign women come at an appointed time, and with them the elders of each town and its judges, until the hot anger of our God is turned away from us in this matter.”

(They gave their word ¹  to send away their wives; their guilt offering was a ram from the flock for their guilt.)

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,

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.’

All these had taken foreign wives, and some of them also had children by these women. ¹ 

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,

As they were able, ¹  they gave to the treasury for this work 61,000 drachmas ²  of gold, 5,000 minas ³  of silver, and 100 priestly robes. ⁴ 

Anyone who survives in any of those places where he is a resident foreigner must be helped by his neighbors ¹  with silver, gold, equipment, and animals, along with voluntary offerings for the temple of God which is in Jerusalem.’”

They established the altar on its foundations, even though they were in terror of the local peoples, ¹  and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and the evening offerings.

For the dedication of this temple of God they offered one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and twelve male goats for the sin of all Israel, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.

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