1 Thereupon King Darius issued an order to search the archives in which the treasures were stored in Babylon.
2 However, a scroll was found in Ecbatana, the stronghold in the province of Media, containing the following text: “Memorandum.
3 In the first year of his reign, King Cyrus issued a decree: With regard to the house of God in Jerusalem: the house is to be rebuilt as a place for offering sacrifices and bringing burnt offerings. Its height is to be sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits.
4 It shall have three courses of cut stone for each one of timber. The costs are to be borne by the royal house.
5 Also, let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple of Jerusalem and brought to Babylon be sent back; let them be returned to their place in the temple of Jerusalem and deposited in the house of God.”
6 “Now, therefore, Tattenai, governor of West-of-Euphrates, and Shethar-bozenai, and you, their fellow officials in West-of-Euphrates, stay away from there.
7 Let the governor and the elders of the Jews continue the work on that house of God; they are to rebuild it on its former site.