In the seventh month, the people of Israel gathered together as one to Jerusalem. Jeshua and his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel with his kinsman, built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on; as it was written in the Law of Moses.
They did all that was commanded in the Law per offering requirements. They kept the Feast of Booths, regular offerings, and appointed feasts of the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.
So they gave money to the masons and carpenters, and brought in cedar trees from Lebanon. Zerubbabel and Jeshua were in charge of the project, and appointed the Levites who were twenty years and older to supervise the work of the house of the Lord.
When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, there was music and singing and they praised the Lord; according to the directions of David king of Israel.
All the people were excited and shouted as they praised the Lord. But many of the priests, Levites, heads of fathers’ houses, and old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid.
This seemed to be a very bitter sweet moment, as they could not distinguish the sound of joyful shout from the sound of people’s weeping.
When the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ houses and asked to let them help build it. Since, they worshiped the same God, they wanted to be part of the temple building.
However, Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads discouraged them, and said they had nothing to do with them in building the house, and they alone would build it as King Cyrus had commanded them.
They bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
In the days of Artaxerxes, several people of the province Beyond the River, wrote to him complaining against Jerusalem. They explained that the Jews who came up from him and gone to Jerusalem were rebuilding the city; finishing walls and repairing foundations.
They told the king in the letter, that if the city were to be built they would not pay tribute, custom, or toll, and the royal revenue would be impaired. They wrote so the king would not be dishonored, and he could search the record books for this information from his fathers.
They told him that he would find in the book of records, proof that it was a rebellious and wicked city, hurtful to kings and provinces, and that sedition was stirred up in it from old. That was why the city was laid to waste. They finished the letter, saying that if the city was rebuilt, the king of Persia would have no possession in the province Beyond the River.
With that, the king started a search on the history of the city. He found that mighty kings had been over Jerusalem, who ruled over all the land. Therefore, he made a decree that the men would stop building and the city would not be rebuilt unless ordered by him.
When the copy of King Artaxerxes’ letter was read, men went in haste to the Jews at Jerusalem and by force and power made them cease building. Then the work on the house of God that is in Jerusalem stopped. It was ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.
The prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. Then Zerubbabel and Jeshua arose and began to rebuild the house of God, and the prophets of God were with them, supporting them.
At the same time, Tattenai the governor of the province Beyond the River and his associates went to them and asked who gave them permission to start building again. They asked the names of the people in charge of building.
“But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until the report should reach Darius and then an answer be returned by letter concerning it.”
Tattenai and his associates sent a letter to Darius the king tattling about everything that was happening with rebuilding the house of God. He wrote that their reply was:
…and we are rebuilding the house that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished. But because our fathers had angered the God of heaven, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house and carried away the people to Babylonian.” They continued that in the first year of Cyrus, he had made a decree to rebuild the house of God.
They finished the letter with asking if it were good to the king, to search through the royal archives and records to find proof of the decree that enabled them to continue building.