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Ezra 6

Ezra 6 traces the temple’s completion through God’s command and Persian royal support, ending with restored worship and joy.

Darius orders a search of royal records, and a scroll found at Achmetha confirms Cyrus’s decree to rebuild God’s house in Jerusalem. Darius tells the provincial officials to leave the builders alone and supply their costs and sacrifices, with harsh penalties for interference. The Jewish elders finish the temple under God’s command, helped by prophetic preaching and royal decrees. The returned exiles dedicate the temple with joy, restore priestly service, and celebrate Passover.

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1Then Darius the king made a decree, and the house of the archives, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon, was searched.
2A scroll was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of Media, and in it this was written for a record:
3In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king made a decree: Concerning God’s house at Jerusalem, let the house be built, the place where they offer sacrifices, and let its foundations be strongly laid, with its height sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits;
4with three courses of great stones and a course of new timber. Let the expenses be given out of the king’s house.
5Also let the gold and silver vessels of God’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple which is at Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought again to the temple which is at Jerusalem, everything to its place. You shall put them in God’s house.
6Now therefore, Tattenai, governor beyond the River, Shetharbozenai, and your companions the Apharsachites, who are beyond the River, you must stay far from there.
8Moreover I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the building of this house of God: that of the king’s goods, even of the tribute beyond the River, expenses must be given with all diligence to these men, that they not be hindered.
9That which they have need of, including young bulls, rams, and lambs, for burnt offerings to the God of heaven; also wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the word of the priests who are at Jerusalem, let it be given them day by day without fail,
10that they may offer sacrifices of pleasant aroma to the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king and of his sons.
11I have also made a decree that whoever alters this message, let a beam be pulled out from his house, and let him be lifted up and fastened on it; and let his house be made a dunghill for this.
12May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow all kings and peoples who stretch out their hand to alter this, to destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem. I Darius have made a decree. Let it be done with all diligence.
13Then Tattenai, the governor beyond the River, Shetharbozenai, and their companions did accordingly with all diligence, because Darius the king had sent a decree.
14The elders of the Jews built and prospered, through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They built and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.
15This house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.
16The children of Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy.
17They offered at the dedication of this house of God one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs; and for a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.
18They set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their courses, for the service of God which is at Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.
19The children of the captivity kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.
20Because the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together, all of them were pure. They killed the Passover for all the children of the captivity, for their brothers the priests, and for themselves.
21The children of Israel who had returned out of the captivity, and all who had separated themselves to them from the filthiness of the nations of the land to seek the LORD, the God of Israel, ate,
22and kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy; because the LORD had made them joyful, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, to strengthen their hands in the work of God, the God of Israel’s house.
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Key verses
Ezra 6:3Cyrus’s recorded decree establishes royal permission for rebuilding the temple as a place of sacrifice.
Ezra 6:10Darius links his provision for sacrifices with a request for prayer for himself and his sons.
Ezra 6:22The closing verse credits YHWH with the people’s joy and the king’s support for the temple work.
Where this chapter reaches

Ezra 6 shares Cyrus’s authorization to rebuild the temple with 2 Chronicles, while its Passover observance follows the feast established in Exodus. Its account of God turning a king’s heart shares with Proverbs the claim that royal decisions remain under YHWH’s rule.

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After reading the whole chapter

What do you notice about the relationship between God’s command and royal decrees in this account?

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What completed work, if any, has led you to thank God with other people?

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Questions people ask about Ezra 6

Why does Ezra 6:22 call the Persian king the king of Assyria?

The chapter names Darius as the reigning king, then uses the title king of Assyria in its closing verse. The title appears to connect Persian rule with the older empire whose lands Persia now governed. The text does not explain the wording; its stated focus is God turning royal power toward support for the temple.

Who was allowed to celebrate Passover in Ezra 6?

Verse 21 names the Israelites who returned from captivity and others who separated themselves from the surrounding nations’ impurity to seek YHWH. It does not give those others’ ancestry or a detailed admission process. The stated conditions concern separation from impurity and seeking Israel’s God, alongside the returned community.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).