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.

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

Tattenai’s Letter to Darius

Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, a descendant of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them.

But the eye of their God was watching over the elders of the Jews, and they were not stopped until a report could go to Darius and his written reply be received.

This is a copy of the letter that Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates, the officials of Trans-Euphrates, sent to King Darius.

The report they sent him read as follows: To King Darius: Cordial greetings.

The Decree of Darius

King Darius then issued an order, and they searched in the archives stored in the treasury at Babylon.

May God, who has caused his Name to dwell there, overthrow any king or people who lifts a hand to change this decree or to destroy this temple in Jerusalem. I Darius have decreed it. Let it be carried out with diligence.

Completion and Dedication of the Temple

Then, because of the decree King Darius had sent, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates carried it out with diligence.

So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo. They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia.

The temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.

The family heads of the Levites in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan and Jaddua, as well as those of the priests, were recorded in the reign of Darius the Persian.

and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.

Daniel in the Den of Lions

It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom,

So these administrators and satraps went as a group to the king and said: “May King Darius live forever!

So King Darius put the decree in writing.

Then the men went as a group to King Darius and said to him, “Remember, Your Majesty, that according to the law of the Medes and Persians no decree or edict that the king issues can be changed.”

Then King Darius wrote to all the nations and peoples of every language in all the earth: “May you prosper greatly!

So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

Daniel’s Prayer

In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom—

And in the first year of Darius the Mede, I took my stand to support and protect him.)

A Call to Build the House of the Lord

In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest:

on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month.

The Promised Glory of the New House

In the second year of King Darius,

Blessings for a Defiled People

On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggai:

A Call to Return to the Lord

In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo: