2. When Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak heard their messages, they began to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, and the two prophets helped them.
3. Almost at once Tattenai, governor of West Euphrates, Shethar Bozenai, and their fellow-officials came to Jerusalem and demanded: “Who gave you orders to build this Temple and equip it?”
4. They also asked for the names of all the men who were helping to build the Temple.
5. But God was watching over the Jewish leaders, and the Persian officials decided to take no action until they could write to Darius and receive a reply.
6. This is the report that they sent to the emperor:
7. “To Emperor Darius, may you rule in peace.
8. “Your Majesty should know that we went to the province of Judah and found that the Temple of the great God is being rebuilt with large stone blocks and with wooden beams set in the wall. The work is being done with great care and is moving ahead steadily.
9. “We then asked the leaders of the people to tell us who had given them authority to rebuild the Temple and to equip it.
10. We also asked them their names so that we could inform you who the leaders of this work are.
11. “They answered, ‘We are servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the Temple which was originally built and equipped many years ago by a powerful king of Israel.
12. But because our ancestors made the God of Heaven angry, he let them be conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, a king of the Chaldean dynasty. The Temple was destroyed, and the people were taken into exile in Babylonia.