The prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the work begins again
5
📚Then the prophets, Haggai 📖 the prophet, and Zechariah 📖 the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. 2 📚Then Zerubbabel 📖 the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua 📖 the son of Jozadak, rose up and began to build 📖 the house of God in Jerusalem, and the prophets of God were with them helping them. Further opposition
3 📚At the same time Tatnai, governor on this side of the River, and Shethar-Boznai, and their companions, came to them and said this to them: “Who has commanded you to build this house and to restore this wall?”
5:3 Ezra 4:4-5. Tatnai was the Persian governor.⚜
4 Accordingly we then told them what the names of the men who were constructing this building were. 5 📚But the eye 📖 of their God was on the elders of the Jews, so that they could not make them stop the work until the matter came before Darius, and then a written reply was returned concerning this matter.
6 📚This is a copy of the letter that Tatnai, governor on this side of the River, and Shethar-Boznai, and his companions the Apharsachites, who were on this side the River, sent to Darius the king. 7 📚They sent a letter to him, in which this was written: “To Darius the king, all peace.
8 📚“Be it known to the king that we went into the province of Judea, to the house of the great God 📖, which is being built with large stones, with timber being placed in the walls; and this work is going ahead quickly, and prospering in their hands.
9 📚“Then we questioned those elders, and said this to them: ‘Who commanded you to build this house, and to restore these walls?’ 10 We also asked their names, to inform you, that we might write the names of their chief men.
11 📚“And they replied to us, saying, ‘We are the servants of the God of heaven 📖 and earth, and rebuild the house that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel 📖 built and finished. 12 📚But after our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to wrath 📖, he gave them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house, and carried the people away into Babylon. 13 📚But in the first year of Cyrus the king of Babylon, King Cyrus 📖 issued a decree to build this house of God. 14 📚And also the articles of gold and silver belonging to the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple that was in Jerusalem and brought into the temple of Babylon, these Cyrus the king took from the temple of Babylon, and they were handed over to a man whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor. 15 📚And he said to him, “Take these articles and go. Carry them to the temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be built in its place”. 16 📚Then this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundation of the house of God in Jerusalem, and from that time until now it is being built, but it is still not finished.’
17 📚“Now, therefore, if it seems good to the king, let there be a search made in the king’s treasure house there in Babylon, and see whether it is true that a decree was made by King Cyrus to build this house of God at Jerusalem, and let the king send his wish to us concerning this matter”.