Ezra 6:13–22

The Temple Completed and Dedicated

¹³Then Tattenai, governor of the region beyond the River, Shethar-Boznai, and their companions diligently did according to what King Darius had sent. ^14kSo the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they built and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the ⁵command of ^lCyrus, ^mDarius, and ⁿArtaxerxes king of Persia. ¹⁵Now the temple was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. ¹⁶Then the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites and the rest of the descendants of the captivity, celebrated ^othe dedication of this ⁶house of God with joy. ¹⁷And they ^poffered sacrifices at the dedication of this house of God, one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. ¹⁸They assigned the priests to their ^qdivisions and the Levites to their ^rdivisions, over the service of God in Jerusalem, ^sas it is written in the Book of Moses.

The Passover Celebrated

¹⁹⁷And the descendants of the captivity kept the Passover ^ton the fourteenth day of the first month. ²⁰For the priests and the Levites had ^upurified themselves; all of them were ritually clean. And they ^vslaughtered the Passover lambs for all the descendants of the captivity, for their brethren the priests, and for themselves. ²¹Then the children of Israel who had returned from the captivity ate together with all who had separated themselves from the ^wfilth ⁸of the nations of the land in order to seek the Lord God of Israel. ²²And they kept the ^xFeast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy; for the Lord made them joyful, and ^yturned the heart ^zof the king of Assyria toward them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.