Cyrus Helps the Exiles to Return^(A)

1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah,^(B) the Lord moved the heart^(C) of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:

⁵ Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin,^(K) and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved^(L)—prepared to go up and build the house^(M) of the Lord in Jerusalem. ⁶ All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold,^(N) with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings.

⁷ Moreover, King Cyrus brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god.^[a](O)

Opposition to the Rebuilding

4 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building^(A) a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, ² they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, “Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon^(B) king of Assyria, who brought us here.”^(C)

³ But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.”^(D)

⁴ Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building.^{[a](E) 5} They bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.

¹⁴ So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching^(A) of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo. They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus,^(B) Darius^(C) and Artaxerxes,^(D) kings of Persia. ¹⁵ The temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.^(E)

¹⁶ Then the people of Israel—the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication^(F) of the house of God with joy. ¹⁷ For the dedication of this house of God they offered^(G) a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred male lambs and, as a sin offering^[a] for all Israel, twelve male goats, one for each of the tribes of Israel. ¹⁸ And they installed the priests in their divisions^(H) and the Levites in their groups^(I) for the service of God at Jerusalem, according to what is written in the Book of Moses.^(J)

The Passover

¹⁹ On the fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles celebrated the Passover.^{(K) 20} The priests and Levites had purified themselves and were all ceremonially clean. The Levites slaughtered^(L) the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their relatives the priests and for themselves. ²¹ So the Israelites who had returned from the exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves^(M) from the unclean practices^(N) of their Gentile neighbors in order to seek the Lord,^(O) the God of Israel. ²² For seven days they celebrated with joy the Festival of Unleavened Bread,^(P) because the Lord had filled them with joy by changing the attitude^(Q) of the king of Assyria so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.

Nehemiah’s Prayer

1 The words of Nehemiah son of Hakaliah:

In the month of Kislev^(A) in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa,^{(B) 2} Hanani,^(C) one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant^(D) that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.

³ They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.^(E)”

⁴ When I heard these things, I sat down and wept.^(F) For some days I mourned and fasted^(G) and prayed before the God of heaven. ⁵ Then I said:

I was cupbearer^(U) to the king.

¹⁷ Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire.^(A) Come, let us rebuild the wall^(B) of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.^(C)” ¹⁸ I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me^(D) and what the king had said to me.

They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work.

¹⁹ But when Sanballat^(E) the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official and Geshem^(F) the Arab heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us.^(G) “What is this you are doing?” they asked. “Are you rebelling against the king?”

²⁰ I answered them by saying, “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding,^(H) but as for you, you have no share^(I) in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.”

¹⁵ So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.

Opposition to the Completed Wall

¹⁶ When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.