¹Then Haggai the prophet prophesied, as did Zechariah the son of Iddo – the prophets to the Jews who were in Judah and in Jerusalem – to them in the name of the God of Israel. ²Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak arose, and they began to build the house of God which is in Jerusalem, and with them were God's prophets helping them. ³At that very moment Tattenai the governor of the region on the far side of the river came to them, with Shethar-Bozenai and their associates, and they said this to them: “Who gave you authorization to build this house and to complete this wall?” ⁴Then we accordingly told them what the names of the men were who were building this building. ⁵But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they could not make them stop the work, and at length the matter came to Darius, when a communiqué about this was handed over. ⁶There follows a transcript of the letter which Tattenai the governor of the regions on the far side of the river, and Shethar-Bozenai and his associates, and the magistrates who were on the far side of the river, sent to Darius the king. ⁷They sent the message to him, in which the following was written: “To Darius the king, complete peace. ⁸Let it be known to the king that we went to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God, and it is being built of hewn stone, and wood is being placed on the walls, and this work is being carried out with precision, and it is progressing well in their hands. ⁹Then we questioned those elders. This is what we said to them: ‘Who gave you authorization to build this house and to complete this wall?’ ¹⁰And we also asked them to make their names known to you, so that we could write down the names of the men who are their head people. ¹¹But this is the response which they gave us, saying, ‘We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the house which was built many years ago when a great king of Israel built it and completed it. ¹²But because our fathers provoked the God of heaven to anger, he delivered them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, and he tore down this house and deported the people to Babylon. ¹³But in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, Cyrus the king issued a decree to build this house of God. ¹⁴And also, as for the articles of gold and silver of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple in Jerusalem and brought to the temple in Babylon, Cyrus the king brought them out of the temple in Babylon, and they were given to a certain Sheshbazzar by name, whom he had appointed governor, ¹⁵and he said to him, «Take these articles and go and deposit them in the temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be built on its site.» ¹⁶Then this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of God in Jerusalem, and from then up to now it has been built, but it is not finished.’ ¹⁷So now, if the king approves, let a search be made where the king's treasure house is in Babylon, as to whether it is a fact that a decree was issued by Cyrus the king to build this house of God in Jerusalem, and let the king send his wishes to us concerning this matter.”