¹At that time two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo, began to speak in the name of the God of Israel to the Jews who lived in Judah and Jerusalem.

²When Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak heard their messages, they began to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, and the two prophets helped them.

³Almost at once Governor Tattenai of West-of-Euphrates, Shethar Bozenai, and their fellow officials came to Jerusalem and demanded: “Who gave you orders to build this Temple and equip it?”

⁴They also asked for the names of all the men who were helping build the Temple.

⁵But God was watching over the Jewish leaders, and the Persian officials decided to take no action until they could write to Emperor Darius and receive a reply.

⁶This is the report that they sent to the emperor:

⁷“To Emperor Darius, may you rule in peace.

⁸“Your Majesty should know that we went to the province of Judah and found that the Temple of the great God is being rebuilt with large stone blocks and with wooden beams set in the wall. The work is being done with great care and is moving ahead steadily.

⁹“We then asked the leaders of the people to tell us who had given them authority to rebuild the Temple and to equip it.

¹⁰We also asked them their names so that we could inform you who the leaders of this work are.

¹¹“They answered, ‘We are servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the Temple which was originally built and equipped many years ago by a powerful king of Israel.

¹²But because our ancestors made the God of Heaven angry, he let them be conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, a king of the Chaldean dynasty. The Temple was destroyed, and the people were taken into exile in Babylonia.

¹³Then in the first year of the reign of King Cyrus as emperor of Babylonia, Cyrus issued orders for the Temple to be rebuilt.

¹⁴He restored the gold and silver Temple utensils which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem and had placed in the temple in Babylon. Emperor Cyrus turned these utensils over to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he appointed governor of Judah.

¹⁵The emperor told him to take them and return them to the Temple in Jerusalem, and to rebuild the Temple where it had stood before.

¹⁶So Sheshbazzar came and laid its foundation; construction has continued from then until the present, but it is still not finished.’

¹⁷“Now, if it please Your Majesty, have a search made in the royal records in Babylon to find whether or not Emperor Cyrus gave orders for this Temple in Jerusalem to be rebuilt, and then inform us what your will is in this matter.”

Emperor Cyrus' Order Is Rediscovered

¹So Emperor Darius issued orders for a search to be made in the royal records that were kept in Babylon.

²But it was in the city of Ecbatana in the province of Media that a scroll was found, containing the following record:

³“In the first year of his reign Emperor Cyrus commanded that the Temple in Jerusalem be rebuilt as a place where sacrifices are made and offerings are burned. The Temple is to be ninety feet high and ninety feet wide.

⁴The walls are to be built with one layer of wood on top of each three layers of stone. All expenses are to be paid by the royal treasury.

⁵Also the gold and silver utensils which King Nebuchadnezzar brought to Babylon from the Temple in Jerusalem are to be returned to their proper place in the Jerusalem Temple.”

Emperor Darius Orders the Work to Continue

⁶Then Emperor Darius sent the following reply: “To Tattenai, governor of West-of-Euphrates, Shethar Bozenai, and your fellow officials in West-of-Euphrates. “Stay away from the Temple

⁷and do not interfere with its construction. Let the governor of Judah and the Jewish leaders rebuild the Temple of God where it stood before.

⁸I hereby command you to help them rebuild it. Their expenses are to be paid promptly out of the royal funds received from taxes in West-of-Euphrates, so that the work is not interrupted.

⁹Day by day, without fail, you are to give the priests in Jerusalem whatever they tell you they need: young bulls, sheep, or lambs to be burned as offerings to the God of Heaven, or wheat, salt, wine, or olive oil.

¹⁰This is to be done so that they can offer sacrifices that are acceptable to the God of Heaven and pray for his blessing on me and my sons.

¹¹I further command that if any disobey this order, a wooden beam is to be torn out of their houses, sharpened on one end, and then driven through their bodies. And their houses are to be made a rubbish heap.

¹²May the God who chose Jerusalem as the place where he is to be worshiped overthrow any king or nation that defies this command and tries to destroy the Temple there. I, Darius, have commanded. My command is to be fully obeyed.”

The Temple Is Dedicated

¹³Then Governor Tattenai, Shethar Bozenai, and their fellow officials did exactly as the emperor had commanded.

¹⁴The Jewish leaders made good progress with the building of the Temple, encouraged by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. They completed the Temple as they had been commanded by the God of Israel and by Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, emperors of Persia.

¹⁵They finished the Temple on the third day of the month Adar in the sixth year of the reign of Emperor Darius.

¹⁶Then the people of Israel—the priests, the Levites, and all the others who had returned from exile—joyfully dedicated the Temple.

¹⁷For the dedication they offered 100 bulls, 200 sheep, and 400 lambs as sacrifices, and 12 goats as offerings for sin, one for each tribe of Israel.

¹⁸They also organized the priests and the Levites for the Temple services in Jerusalem, according to the instructions contained in the book of Moses.

The Passover

¹⁹The people who had returned from exile celebrated Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month of the following year.

²⁰All the priests and the Levites had purified themselves and were ritually clean. The Levites killed the animals for the Passover sacrifices for all the people who had returned, for the priests, and for themselves.

²¹The sacrifices were eaten by all the Israelites who had returned from exile and by all those who had given up the pagan ways of the other people who were living in the land and who had come to worship the Lord God of Israel.

²²For seven days they joyfully celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread. They were full of joy because the Lord had made the emperor of Assyria favorable to them, so that he supported them in their work of rebuilding the Temple of the God of Israel.

The Vision of the Lampstand

¹The angel who had been speaking to me came again and roused me as if I had been sleeping.

²“What do you see?” he asked. “A lampstand made of gold,” I answered. “At the top is a bowl for the oil. On the lampstand are seven lamps, each one with places for seven wicks.

³There are two olive trees beside the lampstand, one on each side of it.”

⁴Then I asked the angel, “What do these things stand for, sir?”

⁵“Don't you know?” he asked me. “No, I don't, sir,” I replied.

God's Promise to Zerubbabel

⁶The angel told me to give Zerubbabel this message from the Lord: “You will succeed, not by military might or by your own strength, but by my spirit.

⁷Obstacles as great as mountains will disappear before you. You will rebuild the Temple, and as you put the last stone in place, the people will shout, ‘Beautiful, beautiful!’”

⁸Another message came to me from the Lord.

⁹He said, “Zerubbabel has laid the foundation of the Temple, and he will finish the building. When this happens, my people will know that it is I who sent you to them. They are disappointed because so little progress is being made. But they will see Zerubbabel continuing to build the Temple, and they will be glad.”

¹⁰The angel said to me, “The seven lamps are the seven eyes of the Lord, which see all over the earth.”

¹¹Then I asked him, “What do the two olive trees on either side of the lampstand mean?

¹²And what is the meaning of the two olive branches beside the two gold pipes from which the olive oil pours?”

¹³He asked me, “Don't you know?” “No, I don't, sir,” I answered.

¹⁴Then he said, “These are the two men whom God has chosen and anointed to serve him, the Lord of the whole earth.”

The Vision of the Flying Scroll

¹I looked again, and this time I saw a scroll flying through the air.

²The angel asked me what I saw. I answered, “A scroll flying through the air; it is thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide.”

³Then he said to me, “On it is written the curse that is to go out over the whole land. On one side of the scroll it says that every thief will be removed from the land; and on the other side it says that everyone who tells lies under oath will also be taken away.

⁴The Lord Almighty says that he will send this curse out, and it will enter the house of every thief and the house of everyone who tells lies under oath. It will remain in their houses and leave them in ruins.”

The Vision of the Woman in the Basket

⁵The angel appeared again and said, “Look! Something else is coming!”

⁶“What is it?” I asked. He replied, “It is a basket, and it stands for the sin of the whole land.”

⁷The basket had a lid made of lead. As I watched, the lid was raised, and there in the basket sat a woman!

⁸The angel said, “This represents wickedness.” Then he pushed her down into the basket and put the lid back down.

⁹I looked up and saw two women flying toward me with powerful wings like those of a stork. They picked up the basket and flew off with it.

¹⁰I asked the angel, “Where are they taking it?”

¹¹He answered, “To Babylonia, where they will build a temple for it. When the temple is finished, the basket will be placed there to be worshiped.”

The Vision of the Four Chariots

¹I had another vision. This time I saw four chariots coming out from between two bronze mountains.

²The first chariot was pulled by red horses, the second by black horses,

³the third by white horses, and the fourth by dappled horses.

⁴Then I asked the angel, “Sir, what do these chariots mean?”

⁵He answered, “These are the four winds; they have just come from the presence of the Lord of all the earth.”

⁶The chariot pulled by the black horses was going north to Babylonia, the white horses were going to the west, and the dappled horses were going to the country in the south.

⁷As the dappled horses came out, they were impatient to go and inspect the earth. The angel said, “Go and inspect the earth!”—and they did.

⁸Then the angel cried out to me, “The horses that went north to Babylonia have quieted the Lord's anger.”

The Command to Crown Joshua

⁹The Lord gave me this message.

¹⁰He said, “Take the gifts given by the exiles Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, and go at once to the home of Josiah son of Zephaniah. All of them have returned from exile in Babylonia.

¹¹Make a crown out of the silver and gold they have given, and put it on the head of the High Priest, Joshua son of Jehozadak.

¹²Tell him that the Lord Almighty says, ‘The man who is called The Branch will flourish where he is and rebuild the Lord's Temple.

¹³He is the one who will build it and receive the honor due a king, and he will rule his people. A priest will stand by his throne, and they will work together in peace and harmony.’

¹⁴The crown will be a memorial in the Lord's Temple in honor of Heldai, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Josiah.”

¹⁵Men who live far away will come and help to rebuild the Temple of the Lord. And when it is rebuilt, you will know that the Lord Almighty sent me to you. This will all happen if you fully obey the commands of the Lord your God.

⁸The king sits in judgment and knows evil when he sees it.

⁹Can anyone really say that his conscience is clear, that he has gotten rid of his sin?

¹⁰The Lord hates people who use dishonest weights and measures.

¹¹Even children show what they are by what they do; you can tell if they are honest and good.