And the people took Joachaz, the son of Josias, and made him king; but the King of Egypt deposed him, and made Joacim, his brother, King of Judea and Jerusalem, who did evil before the Lord.  Wherefore, against him, Nabuchodonosor, King of Babylon, came up and bound him with a chain of brass, and carried him into Babylon.  Nabuchodonosor also took of the holy vessels of the Lord and carried them away, and set them in his own temple at Babylon, and made Zedechias king.  Zedechias reigned eleven years, but did evil also in the sight of the Lord.

The governors of the people and of the priests did likewise many things against the Lord, and defiled the Temple of the Lord, who, being wrath with his people for their great ungodliness, commanded the Kings of the Chaldees to come up against them.  This they did, and slew and spared neither young man nor maid, old man nor child, among them.  And they took all the holy vessels of the Lord, both great and small, with the vessels of the Ark of God and the king’s treasures, and carried them away into Babylon.  As for the House of the Lord, they burnt it, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem and set fire upon her towers.  And the people that were not slain with the sword were carried unto Babylon, who became servants to Nabuchodonosor, till the Persians reigned, to fulfil the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremy.

In the first year of Cyrus, King of the Persians, the Lord raised up his spirit, and he made proclamation through all his kingdom, saying:  The Lord of Israel, the most high Lord, hath made me king of the whole world, and commanded me to build him an house at Jerusalem in Jewry.  If there be any of you that are of his people, let the Lord, even his Lord, be with him; let him go up to Jerusalem and build the house of the Lord of Israel.

Then the chief of the families of Judea and of the tribe of Benjamin, the priests also, and the Levites moved up to Jerusalem to build an house for the Lord there.  And they were helped in all things with silver and gold, with horses and cattle, and with very many free gifts.  King Cyrus also brought forth the holy vessels which Nabuchodonosor had carried away from Jerusalem and had set up in his temple of idols.  The vessels of gold and of silver which were brought back by Sanabassar, together with them of the captivity from Babylon to Jerusalem, were, in number, five thousand four hundred three score and nine.

But in the time of Artaxerxes, the building of the Temple ceased.  Now, when Darius reigned, he made a great feast unto all the governors and captains that were under him from India unto Ethiopia, of an hundred and twenty-seven provinces.  And when they had eaten and drunken, three young men that were of the guard that kept the king’s body strove to excel each other in wise speeches.  Every one wrote his sentence and referred the writings to the judgment of the king.  The first declareth the strength of wine; the second declareth the power of a king; the third the force of women and of truth.  The third, who was Zorobabel, was judged to be wisest; and all the people then shouted:  Great is Truth, and mighty above all things.