Ezra 6:13-22

Contemporary English Version

The Temple Is Dedicated

¹³ Governor Tattenai, Shethar Bozenai, and their advisors carefully obeyed King Darius. ^14 (A) With great success the Jewish leaders continued working on the temple, while Haggai and Zechariah encouraged them by their preaching. And so, the temple was completed at the command of the God of Israel and by the orders of kings Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes of Persia.^{[a] 15} On the third day of the month of Adar^[b] in the sixth year of the rule of Darius,^[c] the temple was finished.

¹⁶ The people of Israel, the priests, the Levites, and everyone else who had returned from exile were happy and celebrated as they dedicated God's temple. ¹⁷ One hundred bulls, two hundred rams, and four hundred lambs were offered as sacrifices at the dedication. Also twelve goats were sacrificed as sin offerings for the twelve tribes of Israel. ¹⁸ Then the priests and Levites were assigned their duties in God's temple in Jerusalem, according to the instructions Moses had written.^[d]

The Passover

^19 (B) Everyone who had returned from exile celebrated Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.^{[e] 20} The priests and Levites had gone through a ceremony to make themselves acceptable to lead in worship. Then some of them killed Passover lambs for those who had returned, including the other priests and themselves.

²¹ The sacrifices were eaten by the Israelites who had returned and by the neighboring people who had given up the sinful customs of other nations in order to worship the Lord God of Israel. ²² For seven days they celebrated the Festival of Thin Bread. Everyone was happy because the Lord God of Israel had made sure that the king of Assyria^[f] would be kind to them and help them build the temple.