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)

⁷⁰ The priests, the Levites, the musicians, the gatekeepers and the temple servants settled in their own towns, along with some of the other people, and the rest of the Israelites settled in their towns.^(A)

Rebuilding the Altar

3 When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns,^(A) the people assembled^(B) together as one in Jerusalem.

² Then Joshua^(A) son of Jozadak^(B) and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel^(C) and his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses^(D) the man of God.

⁸ In the second month^(A) of the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel^(B) son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak and the rest of the people (the priests and the Levites and all who had returned from the captivity to Jerusalem) began the work. They appointed Levites twenty^(C) years old and older to supervise the building of the house of the Lord. ⁹ Joshua^(D) and his sons and brothers and Kadmiel and his sons (descendants of Hodaviah^[a]) and the sons of Henadad and their sons and brothers—all Levites—joined together in supervising those working on the house of God.

¹⁰ When the builders laid^(E) the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets,^(F) and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise^(G) the Lord, as prescribed by David^(H) king of Israel.^{(I) 11} With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord:

And all the people gave a great shout^(K) of praise to the Lord, because the foundation^(L) of the house of the Lord was laid. ¹² But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple,^(M) wept^(N) aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. ¹³ No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy^(O) from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.

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.

²⁴ Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius^(A) king of Persia.