A record at Ecbatana confirms the temple decree
Exile & Return · Draft · BSB
Content revision: 8e0abefbae9a57a4 · No editorial review date recorded
Date: Darius · During the temple rebuilding inquiry
Darius orders a search for Cyrus’s decree, and a memorandum is found at Ecbatana. He directs the officials to let the temple work proceed and fund it from regional taxes, supplying what is needed for worship. The decree also threatens severe punishment for interference.
The archive is found in Media, not simply at the Babylonian location first proposed for the search. Darius’s support includes an imperial interest in prayers for his own family. The exact date of the archive decision within the rebuilding years is unstated, so its position beside prophetic messages does not establish a month-by-month sequence.
Primary Scripture
6:1 Thus King Darius ordered a search of the archives stored in the treasury of Babylon.
6:2 And a scroll was found in the fortress of Ecbatana, in the province of Media, with the following written on it: Memorandum:
6:3 In the first year of King Cyrus, he issued a decree concerning the house of God in Jerusalem: Let the house be rebuilt as a place for offering sacrifices, and let its foundations be firmly laid. It is to be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide,
6:4 with three layers of cut stones and one of timbers. The costs are to be paid from the royal treasury.
6:5 Furthermore, the gold and silver articles of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and carried to Babylon, must also be returned to the temple in Jerusalem and deposited in the house of God.
6:6 Therefore Darius decreed: To Tattenai governor of the region west of the Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and your associates and officials in the region: You must stay away from that place!
6:7 Leave this work on the house of God alone. Let the governor and elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its original site.
6:8 I hereby decree what you must do for these elders of the Jews who are rebuilding this house of God: The cost is to be paid in full to these men from the royal treasury out of the taxes of the provinces west of the Euphrates, so that the work will not be hindered.
6:9 Whatever is needed—young bulls, rams, and lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, as well as wheat, salt, wine, and oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem—must be given to them daily without fail.
6:10 Then they will be able to offer sacrifices of a sweet aroma to the God of heaven and to pray for the lives of the king and his sons.
6:11 I also decree that if any man interferes with this directive, a beam is to be torn from his house and raised up, and he is to be impaled on it. And his own house shall be made a pile of rubble for this offense.
6:12 May God, who has caused His Name to dwell there, overthrow any king or people who lifts a hand to alter this decree or to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have issued the decree. Let it be carried out with diligence.
Related Scripture
The earlier proclamation gives another form of Cyrus’s authorization.
Location evidence
Ecbatana is identified at modern Hamadan. Its marker locates the city, not a verified archive chamber; Jerusalem marks the project affected by the decision.
Event map marker: Identified site; [longitude, latitude] = [48.516247, 34.8065]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Jerusalem: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.234167, 31.776667]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible.info: Jerusalem (CC BY 4.0)
Ecbatana: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [48.516247, 34.8065]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible.info: Ecbatana (CC BY 4.0)
OpenBible.info: Ecbatana (CC BY 4.0)
For the class
What difference does an archival record make to the community’s situation?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (content/authored/exile-return.json)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm