Yet Cyrus loved much Meshar, sister of Zerubbabel, [even] as his own soul.
2So he gave an urgent order that they should go about the whole land of the Chaldaeans, and gather together the children of Israel into Babylon, the house of the kingdom; and they gathered them according to the king's order.
3Then Cyrus said to Zerubbabel, his wife's brother, "Take thy people and go to thy city Jerusalem; and rebuild it as it was at first.
4Then when dutiful Cyrus had given this order concerning the return of the children of Israel to Jerusalem, in the land of the sanctuary; God appeared unto him in a vision during sleep, and said unto him,
5"Because thou hast done this, they shall call thee Cyrus the Messiahnic; and this name, Messiahnic, shall be given thee, because thou hast sent back strangers to their own city; and because thou hast given commandment concerning the rebuilding of Jerusalem."
6Then the children of Israel returned from the captivity of Babylon, Zerubbabel was elder over them; and Josiah, son of Zadok, of the sons of Aaron, was high priest over them; as the angel of God spake to the prophet Zachariah saying,
7"Those two sons that stand before the Lord of the whole earth shall minister unto them, as becomes their service."
8Cyrus had assumed the kingdom two years, when the captivity returned from Babylon; and at the end of that year, the 5,000 years [spoken of] to Adam were fulfilled.
9Yet when the children of Israel returned from Babylon they had not the law, neither was there a book in their hands; inasmuch as the voices of the prophets had departed from among them.
10So, when they came to Jerusalem and were settled in it, Ezra the scribe came to the vault in which were the ashes of the books, which Simeon the priest, had gathered together.
11And Ezra found the censer that was full of fire, hanging with [smoke of] incense rising from it on high.
12Then Ezra prayed to God, wept abundantly, and spread his hand towards the ashes of the books of the law and of the prophets, and all of them three times.
13Then came the Spirit of God upon him, and the [same] Spirit spake through him that had spoken through the prophets.
14And he wrote the law and the prophets, and made them new a second time.
15And the fire which he found in the censer, is the divine fire that was all the time in the House of God.
16Then Zerubbabel settled in Jerusalem as king over the children of Israel, and Josiah son of Zadok as high priest, with Ezra the scribe of the law and the prophets also, as chief over the children of Israel.
17And the children of Israel kept a solemn Passover unto the Lord, when they returned from their captivity at Babylon.
18These were the three great, full and solemn feasts of the Passover, which the children of Israel kept during their existence.
19The first Passover was in Egypt, in the days of Moses; the second Passover was in the days of king Josiah;
20and the third Passover was when they returned from their captivity in Babylon.