9 And we asked those ancients, and said to them thus: Who hath given you authority to build this house, and to repair these walls?
10 We asked also of them their names, that we might give thee notice: and we have written the names of the men that are the chief among them.
11 And they answered us in these words, saying: We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are building a temple that was built these many years ago, and which a great king of Israel built and set up.
12 But after that our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to wrath, he delivered them into the hands of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon the Chaldean: and he destroyed this house, and carried away the people to Babylon.
13 But in the first year of Cyrus the king of Babylon, king Cyrus set forth al decree, that this house of God should be built.
14 And the vessels also of gold and silver of the temple of God, which Nabuchodonosor had taken out of the temple, that was in Jerusalem, and had brought them to the temple of Babylon, king Cyrus brought out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered to one Sassabasar, whom also he appointed governor,
15 And said to him: Take these vessels, and go, and put them in the temple that is in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be built in its place.