10. That they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons.
11. Also I make a decree that whoever shall change or infringe on this order, let a beam be pulled from his house and erected; then let him be fastened to it, and let his house be made a dunghill for this.
12. May the God Who has caused His Name to dwell there overthrow all kings and peoples who put forth their hands to alter this or to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem. I Darius make a decree; let it be executed speedily and exactly.
13. Then Tattenai, governor of the province this side of the River, with Shethar-bozenai and their associates, diligently did what King Darius had decreed.
14. And the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished their building as commanded by the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia.
15. And this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.
16. And the Israelites–the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles–celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.
17. They offered at the dedication of this house of God 100 young bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs, and, for a sin offering for all Israel, 12 he-goats, according to the number of Israel's tribes.
18. And they set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their courses for the service of God at Jerusalem, as it is written in the Book of Moses.
19. The returned exiles kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.
20. For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were clean. So they killed the Passover lamb for all the returned exiles, for their brother priests, and for themselves.
21. It was eaten by the Israelites who had returned from exile and by all who had joined them and separated themselves from the pollutions of the peoples of the land to seek the Lord, the God of Israel.
22. They kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with joy, for the Lord had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria [referring to Darius king of Persia] to them, so that he strengthened their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.