First Reading
Ezra 6:7-8, 12b, 14-20
Read this as the first big movement of the day. Notice what God is doing, who is speaking, and what part of the story or teaching should stay with you.
7And let that temple of God be built by the governor of the Jews, and by their leaders, that they may build that house of God in its place.
8I also have commanded what must be done by those leaders of the Jews, that the house of God may be built, to wit, that of the king's chest, that is, of the tribute that is paid out of the country beyond the river, the charges be diligently given to those men, lest the work be hindered.
14And the leaders of the Jews built and prospered according to the prophecy of Aggeus the prophet, and of Zacharias the son of Addo: and they built and finished, by the command of the God of Israel, and by the command of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes kings of the Persians.
15And they were finishing this house of God, until the third day of the month of Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of king Darius.
16And the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity kept the dedication of the house of God with joy.
17And they offered at the dedication of the house of God, a, hundred calves, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and for a sin offering for all Israel twelve he goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.
18And they set the priests in their divisions, and the Levites in their courses over the what God wants in Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.
19And the children of Israel of the captivity kept the phase, 0 on the fourteenth day of the first month.
20For all the priests and the Levites were purified as one man: all were clear to kill the phase for all the children of the captivity, and for their brothers and sisters the priests, and themselves.