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Ezra 6:13-22

Ezra 6:13-22 CSB

Then Tattenai governor of the region west of the Euphrates River, Shethar-bozenai, and their colleagues  diligently carried out what King Darius had decreed. So the Jewish elders continued successfully with the building under the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo.  They finished the building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus,  Darius, and King Artaxerxes  of Persia. This house was completed on the third day of the month of Adar  in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. Then the Israelites, including the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles, celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy. For the dedication of God’s house they offered one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, and four hundred lambs, as well as twelve male goats  as a sin offering for all Israel #— #one for each Israelite tribe. They 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.  The exiles  observed the Passover  on the fourteenth day of the first month. All of the priests and Levites were ceremonially clean, because they had purified themselves. They killed the Passover lamb for themselves, their priestly brothers, and all the exiles.  The Israelites who had returned from exile  ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the Gentiles of the land  , in order to worship the LORD, the God of Israel. They observed the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days  with joy, because the LORD had made them joyful, having changed the Assyrian king’s attitude toward them, so that he supported them  in the work on the house of the God of Israel.