Ezra
Chapter 5
1 The prophets Haggai and Zechariah, son of Iddo, spoke God’s message to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem.
2 Zerubbabel, Shealtiel’s son, and Jeshua, Jozadak’s son, stood up and started building God’s house in Jerusalem. God’s prophets were also there, helping them.
3 At that time, Tatnai, the governor of the region across the river, Shetharboznai, and their associates came to them and asked, “Who gave you permission to build this temple and finish this wall?”
4 We asked them, “What are the names of the men building this?”
5 God watched over the Jewish leaders, so no one could stop them until the issue reached Darius. Then they sent a written reply about this.
6 This is the letter that Tatnai, the governor across the river, Shetharboznai, and their associates, the Apharsachites who were also across the river, sent to King Darius:
7 They sent him a letter that said: To King Darius, all peace.
8 We want the king to know that we went to Judea, to the big temple of God. It is made with large stones, and wood is put into the walls. The work is moving quickly and going well.
9 We asked the elders, “Who told you to build this temple and these walls?”
10 We also asked for their names to tell you, so we could write down the names of their leaders.
11 They replied to us, saying, “We serve the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel constructed and established.”
12 But after our ancestors made the God of heaven angry, he let Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon and a Chaldean, defeat them. He destroyed this place and took the people to Babylon.
13 In the first year of Cyrus, the king of Babylon, King Cyrus ordered that God’s house be rebuilt.
14 The gold and silver items from God’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Jerusalem temple to the Babylon temple, were taken by King Cyrus from the Babylon temple. He gave them to Sheshbazzar, the governor he appointed.
15 God said to him, “Take these items, go, bring them to the temple in Jerusalem, and rebuild God’s house where it was.”
16 Sheshbazzar came and started the foundation of God’s house in Jerusalem. It has been under construction from then until now, and it’s still not finished.
17 So now, if the king agrees, let someone look in the king’s treasury in Babylon to see if King Cyrus made a decree to rebuild God’s house in Jerusalem, and let the king tell us what he decides about this.