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

Then work on the house of God in Jerusalem ceased, and it was stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until a report could come to Darius, and then a written reply be returned concerning it.

This is the copy of the letter which Tattenai, the governor of the province beyond the River, and Shethar-bozenai and his colleagues the officials, who were beyond the River, sent to Darius the king.

They sent a report to him in which it was written thus: “To Darius the king, all peace.

Then King Darius issued a decree, and search was made in the archives, where the treasures were stored in Babylon.

May the God who has caused His name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who attempts to change it, so as to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have issued this decree, let it be carried out with all diligence!”

Then Tattenai, the governor of the province beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai and their colleagues carried out the decree with all diligence, just as King Darius had sent.

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.

This temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar; it was the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.

As for the Levites, the heads of fathers’ households were registered in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, and Johanan and Jaddua; so were the priests in the reign of Darius the Persian.

So Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about the age of sixty-two.

It seemed good to Darius to appoint 120 satraps over the kingdom, that they would be in charge of the whole kingdom,

Then these commissioners and satraps came by agreement to the king and spoke to him as follows: “King Darius, live forever!

Therefore King Darius signed the document, that is, the injunction.

Then Darius the king wrote to all the peoples, nations and men of every language who were living in all the land: “May your peace abound!

So this Daniel enjoyed success in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans—

“In the first year of Darius the Mede, I arose to be an encouragement and a protection for him.

In the second year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,

on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king.

On the twenty-fourth of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Haggai the prophet, saying,

In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo saying,

On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, as follows:

In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev.