³ In the first year of his reign, King Cyrus issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices are offered and burnt offerings are brought;^[a] its height shall be sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits,^(A)

Cyrus Proclaims Liberty for the Exiles

²² In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also in writing, saying:^{(A) 23} “Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Let any of those among you who are of his people—may the Lord their God be with them!—go up.”^(B)

End of the Babylonian Captivity

1 In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord from the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also in writing, saying:^(C)

² “Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.^{(D) 3} Let any of those among you who are of his people—may their God be with them!—go up to Jerusalem in Judah and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel; he is the God who is in Jerusalem.^{(E) 4} And let all survivors in whatever place they reside be assisted by the people of their place with silver and gold, with goods, and with livestock, besides freewill offerings for the house of God in Jerusalem.”

¹⁶ The city has four equal sides, its length the same as its width, and he measured the city with his rod, twelve thousand stadia; its length and width and height are equal.

¹³ Then he measured the temple, one hundred cubits deep, and the yard and the building with its walls, one hundred cubits deep,^{(A) 14} also the width of the east front of the temple and the yard, one hundred cubits.^(B)

¹⁵ Then he measured the width of the building facing the yard at the west, together with its galleries^[a] on either side, one hundred cubits.

The nave of the temple’s interior and the outer^[b] vestibule^(C)

¹³ However, King Cyrus of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, made a decree that this house of God should be rebuilt.^{(A) 14} Moreover, the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem and had brought into the temple of Babylon, these King Cyrus took out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor.^{(B) 15} He said to him, “Take these vessels; go and put them in the temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt on its site.”

³ These are Solomon’s measurements^[a] for building the house of God: the length, in cubits of the old standard, was sixty cubits and the width twenty cubits. ⁴ The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits long, across the width of the house,^[b] and its height was one hundred twenty cubits. He overlaid it on the inside with pure gold.

⁶ But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him except as a place to make offerings before him?^(A)

² The house that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.^{(A) 3} The vestibule in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits wide, across the width of the house. Its depth was ten cubits in front of the house.