The Second Temple Is Built

In the seventh month after they had left Babylon, Jeshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the governor sent messengers all around and, sparing no effort, gathered everyone in the country together to Jerusalem. Then they built the altar on the same spot where it had stood before, so that they might offer the appointed sacrifices to God on it according to the laws of Moses. But in doing this they displeased the neighboring nations, who all bore them ill will. They also kept the Feast of Tabernacles at that time, as the lawgiver had ordained for it; and after that they offered sacrifices, what were called the daily sacrifices, and the offerings proper for the Sabbaths and for all the holy festivals. Those who had made vows fulfilled them and offered their sacrifices from the first day of the seventh month. They also began to build the temple, and gave a great deal of money to the masons and carpenters, and what was needed for the workmen’s keep. The Sidonians, too, were very willing and ready to bring cedar trees from Lebanon, bind them together into a single raft, and bring them to the port of Joppa; for that was what Cyrus had commanded at first, and it was now being done at the command of Darius. [a]

In the second year after their coming to Jerusalem, while the Jews were there, in the second month, the building of the temple went ahead quickly. When they had laid its foundations on the first day of the second month of that second year, they set as overseers of the work the Levites who were fully twenty years old, along with Jeshua and his sons and brothers, and Kadmiel the brother of Judah son of Amminadab, with his sons; and through the great diligence of those in charge of it, the temple was finished sooner than anyone would have expected. When the temple was finished, the priests, dressed in their customary robes, stood with their trumpets, while the Levites and the sons of Asaph stood and sang hymns to God, as David had first appointed them to bless God. But the priests and Levites and the older members of the families remembered how much greater and more splendid the old temple had been. Seeing how far the one now built fell short, because of their poverty, of the one built long ago, they reflected how far their happy state had sunk below what it once was, as well as their temple. At this they were downcast and could not contain their grief, and went so far as to lament and shed tears over these things. The people in general, however, were content with their present condition. Because they were allowed to build themselves a temple, they wanted nothing more; they neither noticed nor remembered, nor tormented themselves at all with, the comparison between this temple and the former one, as if this one fell short of their hopes. Yet the wailing of the old men and the priests over the shortcomings of this temple, as they saw them when it was compared with the one that had been demolished, drowned out the sound of the trumpets and the rejoicing of the people. [c]

But when the Samaritans, who were still enemies of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, heard the sound of the trumpets, they came running together and wanted to know the reason for this uproar. When they found that it came from the Jews who had been carried captive to Babylon and were rebuilding their temple, they came to Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the heads of the families and asked to be allowed to build the temple with them and to be their partners in building it. For they said, “We worship God no less than you do, and we pray to him earnestly, and we have longed for his worship ever since Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, moved us here from Cuthah and Media.” When they said this, Zerubbabel and Jeshua the high priest and the heads of the families of the Israelites answered that it was impossible to let them be partners, since they themselves had been appointed to build that temple, first by Cyrus and now by Darius. It was indeed lawful for them to come and worship there if they wished; but they could allow them nothing in common with themselves except what was common to them with all other men, to come to their temple and worship God there. [e]

When the Cutheans heard this (for the Samaritans go by that name), they were indignant. They persuaded the nations of Syria to ask the governors, as they had done before in the days of Cyrus and again afterward in the days of Cambyses, to stop the building of the temple and to try to hold back and delay the Jews in their eagerness for it. At this time Sisinnes, the governor of Syria and Phoenicia, and Sathrabouzanes, with some others, came up to Jerusalem and asked the rulers of the Jews by whose permission they were building the temple in this way, since it was more like a citadel than a temple, and for what reason they were building colonnades and walls around the city, and strong ones at that. Zerubbabel and Jeshua the high priest replied that they were the servants of the greatest God. This temple, they said, had been built for him by a king of theirs who lived in great prosperity and surpassed all men in virtue, and it had stood a long time. But because of their fathers’ wickedness toward God, Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonians and the Chaldeans, took their city by force and destroyed it, plundered the temple and burned it down, and carried off the people he had taken captive and moved them to Babylon. Then Cyrus, who after him was king of Babylonia and Persia, wrote to them to build the temple, and entrusted the gifts and vessels, and whatever Nebuchadnezzar had carried out of it, to Zerubbabel and Mithredath the treasurer, with orders to have them carried to Jerusalem and restored to their own temple when it was built. For he had sent word to have that done quickly, and had commanded Sheshbazzar to go up to Jerusalem and take charge of building the temple; and Sheshbazzar, on receiving that letter from Cyrus, came and at once laid its foundations. “And though it has been under construction from that time to this, it is not yet finished, because of the malice of our enemies. So if you are willing, and think it proper, write this account to Darius, so that when he has consulted the records of the kings he may find that we have told you nothing false in this matter.” [h]

When Zerubbabel and the high priest had given this answer, Sisinnes and those with him decided not to hinder the building until they had informed King Darius of all this, and they wrote to him at once about these matters. But the Jews were now in terror, afraid that the king might change his mind about the building of Jerusalem and of the temple. There were two prophets among them at that time, Haggai and Zechariah, and they encouraged them, told them to take heart and to fear no hindrance from the Persians, for God had foretold this to them. So, relying on those prophets, they applied themselves earnestly to building and did not stop for a single day.

Now the Samaritans had written to Darius, and in their letter had accused the Jews of fortifying the city and building the temple more like a citadel than a temple, and had said that what they were doing was not in the king’s interest; and besides, they showed him the letter of Cambyses in which he had forbidden them to build the temple. When Darius understood from this that the restoration of Jerusalem was not in his interest, and when he had read the letter brought to him from Sisinnes and those with him, he gave orders that the royal records be searched for whatever concerned these matters. A book was found at Ecbatana, in the tower that was in Media, in which this was written: “Cyrus the king, in the first year of his reign, commanded that the temple should be built in Jerusalem, and the altar ninety feet high and as wide, with three courses of polished stone and one course of the country’s own timber; and he ordained that its cost should be paid out of the king’s revenue. He also commanded that the vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had plundered and carried to Babylon should be restored to the people of Jerusalem, and that the charge of these things should belong to Sheshbazzar, the governor and president of Syria and Phoenicia, and his associates, so that they should not meddle with that place but should let the servants of God, the Jews and their rulers, build the temple. He also ordained that they should help them in the work, and should pay the Jews, out of the tribute of the country they governed, for the sacrifices: bulls and rams and lambs and young goats, fine flour and oil and wine, and everything else the priests should ask of them; and that they should pray for the preservation of the king and of the Persians. As for any who broke any of these orders so sent to them, he commanded that they should be seized and hung on a cross, and their property confiscated for the king’s use. He also prayed to God against them, that if anyone tried to hinder the building of the temple, God would strike him down and so put a stop to his wickedness.” [k]

When Darius had found this book among the records of Cyrus, he wrote an answer to Sisinnes and his associates, which ran as follows: “King Darius to Sisinnes the governor and to Sathrabouzanes and their associates: greetings. Having found a copy of this letter among the records of Cyrus, I have sent it to you, and I wish everything to be done as is written in it. Farewell.” So when Sisinnes and those with him understood the king’s intention, they resolved to follow his directions fully from then on. They pressed the sacred work forward and helped the elders of the Jews and the leaders of their council of elders; and the building of the temple was brought to completion with great diligence, through the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, according to God’s commands, and by the orders of the kings Cyrus and Darius. The temple was built in seven years. In the ninth year of Darius’s reign, on the twenty-third day of the twelfth month, which we call Adar and the Macedonians call Dystrus, the priests and Levites and the rest of the Israelite multitude offered sacrifices for the renewal of their former prosperity after their captivity, and because they now had the temple rebuilt: a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and twelve young goats, according to the number of their tribes (for that is how many tribes of Israelites there are), the last of these for the sins of each tribe. The priests and the Levites also set gatekeepers at every gate, according to the laws of Moses. For the Jews had also built the colonnades of the inner temple that ran around the temple itself. [n]

As the Feast of Unleavened Bread was at hand, in the first month, which the Macedonians call Xanthicus and we call Nisan, all the people streamed into the city from the villages and kept the festival, having purified themselves, with their wives and children, according to the law of their country. They offered the sacrifice called the Passover on the fourteenth day of the same month and feasted for seven days, sparing no expense. They offered whole burnt offerings to God and sacrifices of thanksgiving, because God had led them back to the land of their fathers and to the laws that belonged to it, and had made the mind of the king of Persia favorable to them. So these men offered very large sacrifices for these reasons, worshiped God with great splendor, and lived in Jerusalem. They used a form of government that was an aristocracy mixed with oligarchy, for the high priests were at the head of their affairs until the descendants of the Hasmoneans set up a kingship. For before their captivity and the dissolution of their state, they had first been governed by kings, from Saul and David, for five hundred and thirty-two years, six months and ten days; and before those kings, such rulers governed them as were called judges and monarchs. Under that form of government they continued for more than five hundred years after the death of Moses and of Joshua their commander. This is the account I had to give of the Jews who had been carried into captivity but were set free from it in the times of Cyrus and Darius. [p]

But the Samaritans, being spiteful and envious toward the Jews, did them much harm, relying on their wealth and on their claim to be related to the Persians, since they had come from there. Whatever they had been ordered by the king to pay the Jews out of their tribute for the sacrifices, they would not pay. They also had the governors on their side, helping them in this, and they did not hold back from hurting the Jews, either themselves or through others, as far as they could. So the people of Jerusalem decided to send an embassy to King Darius and accuse the Samaritans. The ambassadors were Zerubbabel and four others of the rulers. As soon as the king learned from the ambassadors the accusations and complaints they brought against the Samaritans, he gave them a letter to carry to the governors and council of Samaria. Its contents were these: “King Darius to Taganas and Sambas, the governors of the Samaritans, to Sadraces and Bouedon, and the rest of their fellow servants in Samaria. Zerubbabel, Hananiah and Mordecai, the ambassadors of the Jews, complain of you that you obstruct them in building the temple and do not supply them with the expenses I commanded you to supply for offering their sacrifices. My will therefore is this: on reading this letter, supply them with whatever they need for their sacrifices, out of the royal treasury from the tributes of Samaria, as the priests shall ask, so that they may not stop offering their daily sacrifices or praying to God for me and the Persians.” Such were the contents of that letter. [q]