9. Then asked we those elders, and said unto them thus, Who gave you a decree to build this house, and to finish this wall?
10. We asked them their names also, to certify thee, that we might write the names of the men that were at the head of them.
11. And thus they returned us answer, saying, We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and build the house that was builded these many years ago, which a great king of Israel builded and finished.
12. But after that our fathers had provoked the God of heaven unto wrath, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house, and carried the people away into Babylon.
13. But in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, Cyrus the king made a decree to build this house of God.