7. This is what was said in the report they sent to him:To King Darius.Greetings. May you have peace.
8. King Darius, you should know that we went to the district of Judah where the Temple of the great God is. The people are building that Temple with large stones, and they are putting timbers in the walls. They are working very hard and are building very fast.
9. We asked their elders, “Who gave you permission to rebuild this Temple and these walls?”
10. We also asked for their names, and we wrote down the names of their leaders so you would know who they are.
11. This is the answer they gave to us: “We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth. We are rebuilding the Temple that a great king of Israel built and finished many years ago.
12. But our ancestors made the God of heaven angry, so he handed them over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who destroyed this Temple and took the people to Babylon as captives.
13. “Later, in the first year Cyrus was king of Babylon, he gave a special order for this Temple to be rebuilt.