Adversaries Discourage the Work

4 Then ^(A)the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that ^(B)the people of the exile were building a temple to Yahweh, the God of Israel,

¹⁶ And the sons of Israel, the priests, the Levites and the rest of the ^[a]exiles, ^(A)celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.

Passover Celebrated

^19 (A)And the exiles celebrated the Passover on ^(B)the fourteenth of the first month. ^20 (C)For the priests and the Levites had cleansed themselves together; all of them were clean. Then ^(D)they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, both for their brothers the priests and for themselves.

²⁵ Then Arioch hurriedly ^(A)brought Daniel before the king and said thus to him: “I have found a man among the ^[a](B)exiles from Judah who can make the interpretation known to the king!”

¹³ Then they answered and said before the king, “^(A)Daniel, who is one of the ^[a]exiles from Judah, pays ^(B)no attention to you, O king, or to the injunction which you signed, but keeps seeking to make his petition three times a day.”