1. THEN KING Darius [I] decreed, and a search was made in Babylonia in the house where the treasured records were stored.
2. And at Ecbatana in the capital in the province of Media, a scroll was found on which this was recorded:
3. In the first year of King Cyrus, [he] made a decree: Concerning the house of God in Jerusalem, let the house, the place where they offer sacrifices, be built, and let its foundations be strongly laid, its height and its breadth each 60 cubits,
4. With three courses of great stones and one course of new timber. Let the cost be paid from the royal treasury.
5. Also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back to the temple in Jerusalem, each put in its place in the house of God.
6. Now therefore, Tattenai, governor of the province [west of] the River, Shethar-bozenai, and your associates, the Apharsachites who are [west of] the River, keep far away from there.
7. Leave the work on this house of God alone; let the governor and the elders of the Jews build this house of God on its site.