And Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo, prophets, prophesied to the Yehudim in Yehud and in Yerushalayim in the name of the Elohim of Yisra'el over them.

Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Yeshua son of Jozadak arose and began to build the house of Elohim which is in Yerushalayim, and with them the prophets of Elohim, helping them.

At that time Tattenai, governor of the region beyond the River, and Shethar-Bozenai, and their companions, came to them and said to them, 'Who issued a decree to you to build this house and to finish this structure?'

Then we said to them, 'What are the names of the men who are building this building?'

But the eye of their Elohim was upon the elders of the Yehudim, and they did not stop them until a report could go to Darius, and then an answer could be written concerning this.

A copy of the letter which Tattenai, the governor of the region beyond the River, and Shethar-Bozenai, and his companions, the Apharsachites who are beyond the River, sent to Darius the king.

They sent a message to him, and thus it was written in it: 'To Darius the king, greetings in all things.'

'Let it be known to the king, that we went to the province of Yehud, to the house of the great Elohim, and it is being built with rolling stones, and wood is being put in the walls, and this work is being done diligently and is succeeding in their hands.'

'Then we asked those elders, saying to them, 'Who issued a decree to you to build this house and to finish this structure?'

'And we also asked for their names, to inform you, so that we might write the names of the men who were at their head.'

'And thus they answered us, saying, 'We are the servants of the Elohim of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the house that was built many years ago, which a great king of Yisra'el built and completed.'

'But because our fathers provoked the Elohim of heaven, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Kasdai, and he destroyed this house and exiled its people to Babylon.'

'But in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, Cyrus the king issued a decree to rebuild this house of Elohim.'

'And also the vessels of the house of Elohim, of gold and silver, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Yerushalayim and brought to the temple in Babylon, Cyrus the king took them out from the temple in Babylon and gave them to Sheshbazzar, whose name was governor.'

'And he said to him, 'Take these vessels, go, place them in the temple in Yerushalayim, and let the house of Elohim be rebuilt in its place.''

'Then this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of Elohim in Yerushalayim, and from that time until now it has been being built and has not been completed.'

'And now, if it is pleasing to the king, let it be searched in the king's treasury there in Babylon. If there is a decree from Cyrus the king to rebuild this house of Elohim in Yerushalayim, let the king send his will concerning this to us.'