Darius Searches the Records
1 Then Darius the king made a decree, and the house of the archives, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon, was searched. 2 A scroll was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of Media, and in it this was written for a record: 3 In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king made a decree: Concerning God’s house at Jerusalem, let the house be built, the place where they offer sacrifices, and let its foundations be strongly laid, with its height sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits; 4 with three courses of great stones and a course of new timber. Let the expenses be given out of the king’s house. 5 Also let the gold and silver vessels of God’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple which is at Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought again to the temple which is at Jerusalem, everything to its place. You shall put them in God’s house. 6 Now therefore, Tattenai, governor beyond the River, Shetharbozenai, and your companions the Apharsachites, who are beyond the River, you must stay far from there. 7 Leave the work of this house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of God in its place. 8 Moreover I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the building of this house of God: that of the king’s goods, even of the tribute beyond the River, expenses must be given with all diligence to these men, that they not be hindered. 9 That which they have need of, including young bulls, rams, and lambs, for burnt offerings to the God of heaven; also wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the word of the priests who are at Jerusalem, let it be given them day by day without fail, 10 that they may offer sacrifices of pleasant aroma to the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king and of his sons. 11 I have also made a decree that whoever alters this message, let a beam be pulled out from his house, and let him be lifted up and fastened on it; and let his house be made a dunghill for this. 12 May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow all kings and peoples who stretch out their hand to alter this, to destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem. I Darius have made a decree. Let it be done with all diligence.
A scroll is found in a provincial palace, and the decree that stops the opposition also puts the empire on the payroll.
Then Darius the king made a decree, and the house of the archives, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon, was searched.
And it was not there. A scroll was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of Media — a different city, in a different province, hundreds of miles from where the search began. The detail is the kind a compiler with a real document in front of him would keep, and it means the file survived two changes of reign and at least one relocation.
What the scroll contains is more than the Jews had claimed. Cyrus's original decree specified dimensions — its height sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits — and construction: three courses of great stones and a course of new timber.
And one clause nobody in Jerusalem had cited: let the expenses be given out of the king's house.
The funding had been authorized from the beginning. For decades the community had been building at its own cost, unaware or unable to prove that the treasury owed it — which is what an archive is for, and why the search matters more than the verdict.
Darius then adds his own orders, and they are blunt. To the officials who raised the question: you must stay far from there, and leave the work of this house of God alone.
Then he goes further than the original grant. Expenses are to come of the tribute beyond the River — from the taxes of the very province that had complained — and supplies are itemized: bulls, rams, lambs, also wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the word of the priests who are at Jerusalem, to be given day by day without fail.
The priests set the quantities. The empire pays and does not audit.
The stated reason is transactional: that they may offer sacrifices of pleasant aroma to the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king and of his sons. Darius wants intercession, and he is buying it.
And the penalty clause is savage — a beam pulled from the offender's house and used to impale him — followed by an appeal to the God of the house to overthrow all kings and peoples who stretch out their hand to alter this.
settled What this mark means