Daniel Interprets the Handwriting

¹³ Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king answered and said to Daniel, “You are that Daniel, one of ^(A)the exiles of Judah, whom the king my father brought from Judah.

Adversaries Oppose the Rebuilding

4 Now when ^(A)the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel,

¹⁶ And the people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the ^(A)dedication of this house of God with joy.

Passover Celebrated

^19 (A)On the fourteenth day of the first month, the returned exiles kept the Passover. ^20 (B)For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were clean. ^(C)So they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves.

⁷ And a proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the returned exiles that they should assemble at Jerusalem,

¹⁶ Then the returned exiles did so. Ezra the priest selected men,^[a] heads of fathers' houses, according to their fathers' houses, each of them designated by name. On the first day of the tenth month they sat down to examine the matter;