Ezra 6:14–22

¹⁴So the Jewish elders built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo.

They finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia. ¹⁵And this temple was completed on the third day of the month of Adar,^d in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.

¹⁶Then the people of Israel — the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles — celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy.

¹⁷For the dedication of the house of God they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and a sin offering for all Israel of twelve male goats, one for each tribe of Israel.

¹⁸They also appointed the priests by their divisions and the Levites by their groups to the service of God in Jerusalem, according to what is written in the Book of Moses.

¹⁹On the fourteenth day of the first month, the exiles kept the Passover. ²⁰All the priests and Levites had purified themselves and were ceremonially clean.

And the Levites slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their priestly brothers, and for themselves. ²¹The Israelites who had returned from exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the peoples^e of the land to seek the LORD, the God of Israel.

²²For seven days they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread^f with joy, because the LORD had made them joyful and turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to strengthen their hands in the work on the house of the God of Israel.