So the heads of the {families} for Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites--to all whose spirit God had stirred--[prepared] to go up and build the house of Yahweh which is in Jerusalem.

And Cyrus the king brought out the objects of the house of Yahweh that Nebuchadnezzar had brought from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods.

apart from their male and female servants, of whom were seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven; and they had two hundred male and female singers.

But many of the elderly priests, Levites, and heads of the families who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house, but many {shouted aloud with joy}.

And this is the answer they returned to us: 'We are servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are building the house that was built formerly many years ago, [which] a great king of Israel had built and finished.

But it was in Ecbatana in the province of Media, in the citadel, that a certain scroll had written on it, "A record.

In the first year of King Cyrus, he issued forth a decree concerning the house of God in Jerusalem. Let the house be built, the place where sacrifices are offered and let its foundations be raised. Its height [shall be] sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits,

For the priests and Levites together had consecrated themselves; all of them were clean. And they slaughtered the Passover sacrifice for all of the returned exiles, for their brothers the priests, and for themselves.

With joy they celebrated the festival of unleavened bread [for] seven days, because Yahweh had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them in order to help them with the work of their hands on the house of the God of Israel.

For Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of Yahweh, to do [it], and to teach the regulations and judgments in Israel.

I sent them to Iddo, the head of the place called Casiphia, and I placed in their mouths what words to say to Iddo and his brothers the temple servants in Casiphia, to send to us ministers for the house of our God.

And from the temple servants, whom David and [his] officials had set up to serve the Levites, two hundred and twenty [in total]. All of them were registered by name.

When I heard this I tore my garment and my robe, and I pulled the hair out from my head and beard, and I sat appalled.

There was found from the sons of the priests those who had married foreign women, from the sons of Jeshua son of Jehozadak and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah.

All of these had married foreign wives, and some from among the wives bore children.