Scriptures

New King James Version (NKJV)

Ezra 5
¹⁰ We also asked them their names to inform you, that we might write the names of the men who were chief among them.
¹¹ And thus they returned us an answer, saying: "We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and completed.
¹² But because our fathers provoked the God of heaven to wrath, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and carried the people away to Babylon.
¹³ However, in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, King Cyrus issued a decree to build this house of God.
¹⁴ Also, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple that was in Jerusalem and carried into the temple of Babylon--those King Cyrus took from the temple of Babylon, and they were given to one named Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor.
¹⁵ And he said to him, ’Take these articles; go, carry them to the temple site that is in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt on its former site.’
¹⁶ Then the same Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundation of the house of God which is in Jerusalem; but from that time even until now it has been under construction, and it is not finished."
¹⁷ Now therefore, if it seems good to the king, let a search be made in the king’s treasure house, which is there in Babylon, whether it is so that a decree was issued by King Cyrus to build this house of God at Jerusalem, and let the king send us his pleasure concerning this matter.
Ezra 6
¹ Then King Darius issued a decree, and a search was made in the archives, where the treasures were stored in Babylon.
² And at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of Media, a scroll was found, and in it a record was written thus:
³ In the first year of King Cyrus, King Cyrus issued a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem: "Let the house be rebuilt, the place where they offered sacrifices; and let the foundations of it be firmly laid, its height sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits,