chief among them.

5:11. 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.

5:12. 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.

5:13. But in the first year of Cyrus the king of Babylon, king Cyrus set
forth a decree, that this house of God should be built.

5:14. 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,

5:15. 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.

5:16. Then came this same Sassabasar, and laid the foundations of the
temple of God in Jerusalem, and from that time until now it is in
building, and is not yet finished.

5:17. Now therefore if it seem good to the king, let him search in the
king's library, which is in Babylon, whether it hath been decreed by
Cyrus the king, that the house of God in Jerusalem should be built, and
let the king send his pleasure to us concerning this matter.

1 Esdras Chapter 6

King Darius favoureth the building and contributeth to it.

6:1. Then king Darius gave orders, and they searched in the library of
the books that were laid up in Babylon,

6:2. And there was found in Ecbatana, which is a castle in the province
of Media, a book in which this record was written.

6:3. In the first year of Cyrus the king: Cyrus the king decreed, that
the house of God should be built, which is in Jerusalem, in the place
where they may offer sacrifices, and that they lay the foundations that
may support the height of threescore cubits, and the breadth of
threescore cubits,

6:4. Three rows of unpolished stones, and so rows of new timber: and the
charges shall be given out of the king's house.

6:5. And also let the golden and silver vessels of the temple of God,
which Nabuchodonosor took out of the temple of Jerusalem, and brought to
Babylon, be restored, and carried back to the temple of Jer