16. The Temple was demolished and burnt, and the people were taken into exile in Babylonia.
17. Then, in the first year of his reign as emperor of Babylonia, Cyrus issued orders for the Temple to be rebuilt.
18. He gave back the sacred gold and silver utensils which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem and had placed in his own temple in Babylon. Cyrus handed these utensils over to Zerubbabel and the governor, Sheshbazzar.
19. The emperor told Sheshbazzar to take them and return them to the Temple in Jerusalem, and to rebuild the Temple where it had stood before.
20. So Sheshbazzar came and laid its foundation, and construction has continued from then until the present, but the Temple is still not finished.’
21. “Now, if it please Your Majesty, have a search made in the royal records in Babylon
22. to find whether or not the building of this Temple in Jerusalem had the approval of emperor Cyrus, and then, if it please Your Majesty, inform us what your will is in this matter.”
23. So Darius the emperor ordered a search to be made in the royal records that were kept in Babylon. It was, however, in the fortress of Ecbatana in the province of Media that a scroll was found, containing the following record: