1 Then King Darius issued a decree, ^aand a search was made in the archives, where the treasures were stored in Babylon.  ‡

3 In the first year of King Cyrus, King Cyrus issued a ^adecree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem: “Let the house be rebuilt, the place where they offered sacrifices; and let the foundations of it be firmly laid, its height sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits, ‡

4 ^awith three rows of heavy stones and one row of new timber. Let the ^bexpenses be paid from the king’s treasury. ‡