Ezra 6:13–22

Completion and Dedication of the Temple

¹³Then, because of the decree King Darius had sent, Tattenai, governor of Trans-Euphrates, and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates^g carried it out with diligence. ¹⁴So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching^h of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo. They finished building the temple according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus,ⁱ Darius^j and Artaxerxes,^k kings of Persia. ¹⁵The temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.^l

¹⁶Then the people of Israel—the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication^m of the house of God with joy. ¹⁷For the dedication of this house of God they offeredⁿ a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred male lambs and, as a sin offering^b for all Israel, twelve male goats, one for each of the tribes of Israel. ¹⁸And they installed the priests in their divisions^o and the Levites in their groups^p for the service of God at Jerusalem, according to what is written in the Book of Moses.^q

The Passover

¹⁹On the fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles celebrated the Passover.^{r 20}The priests and Levites had purified themselves and were all ceremonially clean. The Levites slaughtered^s the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their relatives the priests and for themselves. ²¹So the Israelites who had returned from the exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves^t from the unclean practices^u of their Gentile neighbors in order to seek the Lord,^v the God of Israel. ²²For seven days they celebrated with joy the Festival of Unleavened Bread,^w because the Lord had filled them with joy by changing the attitude^x of the king of Assyria so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.