And they hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem.

Then the work of the house of God at Jerusalem ceased. So it ceased to the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.

And after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,

These are now the chief of their fathers, and the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king.

Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves to Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth of the month. And all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain.

But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand outside. And the work is not of one or two days. For we who have sinned in this thing are many.