Ezra 5

Rebuilding the House of God Begins Again

¹And the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them.

²Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak arose and began to rebuild the house of God which is in Jerusalem; and the prophets of God were with them supporting them.

³At that time Tattenai, the governor of the province beyond the River, and Shethar-bozenai and their colleagues came to them and spoke to them thus, “Who issued you a decree to rebuild this house and to complete this structure?”[#5:3 The Euphrates River, so in ch]

⁴Then we told them accordingly what the names of the men were who were rebuilding this building.

⁵But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until a report could come to Darius, and then a document be returned concerning this.

Tattenai and Others Write to King Darius

⁶This is the copy of the letter which Tattenai, the governor of the province beyond the River, and Shethar-bozenai and his colleagues the officials, who were beyond the River, sent to Darius the king.

⁷They sent word to him in which it was written thus:

¹¹Thus they responded with a word to us, saying,