Thereupon, at the order of King Darius, they searched the archives where the treasures were stored in Babylon.
Memorandum:
In the first year of King Cyrus, King Cyrus issued an order concerning the House of God in Jerusalem:
‘Let the house be rebuilt, a place for offering sacrifices, with a base built up high. Let it be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide,
with a course of unused timber for each three courses of hewn stone. The expenses shall be paid by the palace.
And the gold and silver vessels of the House of God which Nebuchadnezzar had taken away from the temple in Jerusalem and transported to Babylon shall be returned, and let each go back to the temple in Jerusalem where it belongs; you shall deposit it in the House of God.’
“Now you, Tattenai, governor of the province of Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai and colleagues, the officials of the province of Beyond the River, stay away from that place.
Allow the work of this House of God to go on; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this House of God on its site.
And I hereby issue an order concerning what you must do to help these elders of the Jews rebuild this House of God: the expenses are to be paid to these men with dispatch out of the resources of the king, derived from the taxes of the province of Beyond the River, so that the work not be stopped.
They are to be given daily, without fail, whatever they need of young bulls, rams, or lambs as burnt offerings for the God of Heaven, and wheat, salt, wine, and oil, at the order of the priests in Jerusalem,
so that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of Heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons.
I also issue an order that whoever alters this decree shall have a beam removed from his house, and he shall be impaled on it and his house confiscated.
And may the God who established His name there cause the downfall of any king or nation that undertakes to alter or damage that House of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have issued the decree; let it be carried out with dispatch.” [Ezra 6. 1-22 OT]