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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Ezra 5 NLT</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/ezra/5.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/ezra/5-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NLT</a> > Ezra 5</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../ezra/4.htm" title="Ezra 4">◄</a> Ezra 5 <a href="../ezra/6.htm" title="Ezra 6">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New Living Translation</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/nlt/esv/ezra/5.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ezra/5-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>At that time the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem. They prophesied in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ezra/5-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jehozadak<a href="#footnotes"><span class="fn">a</span></a> responded by starting again to rebuild the Temple of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them and helped them.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ezra/5-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>But Tattenai, governor of the province west of the Euphrates River,<a href="#footnotes"><span class="fn">b</span></a> and Shethar-bozenai and their colleagues soon arrived in Jerusalem and asked, “Who gave you permission to rebuild this Temple and restore this structure?” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ezra/5-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>They also asked for<a href="#footnotes"><span class="fn">c</span></a> the names of all the men working on the Temple. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ezra/5-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>But because their God was watching over them, the leaders of the Jews were not prevented from building until a report was sent to Darius and he returned his decision.</p><p class="hdg">Tattenai’s Letter to King Darius</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ezra/5-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>This is a copy of the letter that Tattenai the governor, Shethar-bozenai, and the other officials of the province west of the Euphrates River sent to King Darius:</p><p class="b"/><p class="pmo"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ezra/5-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>“To King Darius. Greetings.</p><p class="pm"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ezra/5-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>“The king should know that we went to the construction site of the Temple of the great God in the province of Judah. It is being rebuilt with specially prepared stones, and timber is being laid in its walls. The work is going forward with great energy and success.</p><p class="pm"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ezra/5-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>“We asked the leaders, ‘Who gave you permission to rebuild this Temple and restore this structure?’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ezra/5-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>And we demanded their names so that we could tell you who the leaders were.</p><p class="pm"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ezra/5-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>“This was their answer: ‘We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the Temple that was built here many years ago by a great king of Israel. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ezra/5-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>But because our ancestors angered the God of heaven, he abandoned them to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon,<a href="#footnotes"><span class="fn">d</span></a> who destroyed this Temple and exiled the people to Babylonia. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ezra/5-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>However, King Cyrus of Babylon,<a href="#footnotes"><span class="fn">e</span></a> during the first year of his reign, issued a decree that the Temple of God should be rebuilt. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ezra/5-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>King Cyrus returned the gold and silver cups that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple of God in Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of Babylon. These cups were taken from that temple and presented to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom King Cyrus appointed as governor of Judah. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ezra/5-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>The king instructed him to return the cups to their place in Jerusalem and to rebuild the Temple of God there on its original site. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ezra/5-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>So this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the Temple of God in Jerusalem. The people have been working on it ever since, though it is not yet completed.’</p><p class="pm"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ezra/5-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>“Therefore, if it pleases the king, we request that a search be made in the royal archives of Babylon to discover whether King Cyrus ever issued a decree to rebuild God’s Temple in Jerusalem. And then let the king send us his decision in this matter.”</p><A name="footnotes"></a><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="fn">a</span><note caller="+" style="f"><span class="fr">5:2 </span><span class="ft">Aramaic </span><span class="it">Jozadak,</span><span class="ft"> a variant spelling of Jehozadak.</span><br><span class="fn">b</span><note caller="+" style="f"><span class="fr">5:3 </span><span class="ft">Aramaic </span><span class="it">the province beyond the river;</span><span class="ft"> also in 5:6.</span><br><span class="fn">c</span><note caller="+" style="f"><span class="fr">5:4 </span><span class="ft">As in one Hebrew manuscript and Greek and Syriac versions; Masoretic Text reads </span><span class="it">Then we told them.</span><br><span class="fn">d</span><note caller="+" style="f"><span class="fr">5:12 </span><span class="ft">Aramaic </span><span class="it">Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldean.</span><br><span class="fn">e</span><note caller="+" style="f"><span class="fr">5:13 </span><span class="ft">King Cyrus of Persia is here identified as the king of Babylon because Persia had conquered the Babylonian Empire.</span><br></span></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><em>Holy Bible</em>, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of <a href="http://www.tyndale.com">Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.</a>, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. 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