In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order to fulfill the Lord's message spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord stirred the mind of King Cyrus of Persia. He disseminated a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom, announcing in a written edict the following:

Descendants of Pahath-moab; that is, through Jeshua and Joab: 2,812

the descendants of Ater (through Hezekiah): 98;

The priests: the descendants of Jedaiah (through the family of Jeshua): 973;

The Levites: the descendants of Jeshua and Kadmiel (through the line of Hodaviah): 74.

And they gave payment to men who made designs against them and kept them from effecting their purpose, all through the time of Cyrus, king of Persia, till Darius became king.

Let it be known to the king that we went to the house of the great God in the province of Judah. It is being built with cut stones, and its beams are being set in the walls. This work is being done diligently and succeeding through the people’s efforts.

And the elders of the Jews were successful in building through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.

And through the good hand of our God upon us, they brought us a wise man from among the children of Mahli the son of Levi the son of Israel, even Sherebiah, with his sons and brethren, eighteen;

which thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land through the filthiness of the peoples of the lands, through their abominations with which they have filled it from one end to another through their uncleanness.

And they made a public statement through all Judah and Jerusalem, to all those who had come back, that they were to come together to Jerusalem;

And the children of the captivity did even so. And Ezra the priest, and the ancient heads through the house of their fathers, and all that were now rehearsed by name, separated themselves; and sat them down on the first day of the tenth month to examine this matter.