² “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:

“‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed^(D) me to build^(E) a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. ³ Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. ⁴ And in any locality where survivors^(F) may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold,^(G) with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings^(H) for the temple of God^(I) in Jerusalem.’”^(J)

¹³ “However, in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, King Cyrus issued a decree^(A) to rebuild this house of God. ¹⁴ He even removed from the temple^[a] of Babylon the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to the temple^[b] in Babylon.^(B) Then King Cyrus gave them to a man named Sheshbazzar,^(C) whom he had appointed governor, ¹⁵ and he told him, ‘Take these articles and go and deposit them in the temple in Jerusalem. And rebuild the house of God on its site.’

¹⁶ “So this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of God^(D) in Jerusalem. From that day to the present it has been under construction but is not yet finished.”

¹⁷ Now if it pleases the king, let a search be made in the royal archives^(E) of Babylon to see if King Cyrus did in fact issue a decree to rebuild this house of God in Jerusalem. Then let the king send us his decision in this matter.