Ezra 6; Ezra 7; Ezra 8; John 21

1 Then King Darius made a decree, and they searched the archives where the documents were stored in Babylon.

2 But a scroll was found in Ecbatana, the capital of the province of Media, on which was written the following: A memorandum—

3 In the first year of his rule, King Cyrus made a decree: Concerning God's house in Jerusalem: Let the house at the place where they offered sacrifices be rebuilt and let its foundations be retained. Its height will be ninety feet and its width ninety feet,

4 with three layers of dressed stones and one layer of timber. The cost will be paid from the royal treasury.

5 In addition, the gold and silver equipment from God's house, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, is to be restored, that is, brought back to Jerusalem and put in their proper place in God's house.

6 Now you, Tattenai, governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and you, their colleagues, the officials in the province Beyond the River, keep away!

7 Leave the work on this house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its original site.

8 I also issue a decree about what you should do to help these elders of the Jews as they rebuild this house of God: The total cost is to be paid to these people, and without delay, from the royal revenue that is made up of the tribute of the province Beyond the River.

9 And whatever is needed—young bulls, rams, or sheep for entirely burned offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, or oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem—let that be given to them day by day without fail

10 so that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the lives of the king and his sons.

11 I also decree that if anyone disobeys this edict, a beam is to be pulled out of the house of the guilty party, and the guilty party will then be impaled upon it. The house will be turned into a trash heap.

12 May the God who has established his name there overthrow any king or people who try to change this order or to destroy God's house in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have decreed it; let it be done with all diligence.

13 Then Tattenai, the governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and their colleagues carried out the order of King Darius with all diligence.

14 So the elders of the Jews built and prospered because of the prophesying of the prophet Haggai and Zechariah, Iddo's son. They finished building by the command of Israel's God and of Cyrus, Darius, and King Artaxerxes of Persia.

15 This house was completed on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the rule of King Darius.

16 Then the Israelites, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles joyfully celebrated the dedication of this house of God.

17 At the dedication of this house of God, they offered one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and as a purification offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.

18 They set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their sections for the service of God in Jerusalem, as it is written in the scroll from Moses.

19 On the fourteenth day of the first month, the returned exiles celebrated the Passover.

20 All of the priests and the Levites had purified themselves; all of them were clean. They slaughtered the Passover animals for all the returned exiles, their fellow priests, and themselves.

21 The Israelites who had returned from exile, together with all those who had joined them by separating themselves from the pollutions of the nations of the land to worship the LORD, the God of Israel, ate the Passover meal.

22 They also joyfully celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days, because the LORD had made them joyful by changing the attitude of the king of Assyria toward them so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.

1 After this, in the rule of Persia's King Artaxerxes, Ezra son of Seraiah son of Azariah son of Hilkiah

2 son of Shallum son of Zadok son of Ahitub

3 son of Amariah son of Azariah son of Meraioth

4 son of Zerahiah son of Uzzi son of Bukki

5 son of Abishua son of Phinehas son of Eleazar son of Aaron the chief priest—

6 this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a scribe skilled in the Instruction from Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given. Moreover, the king gave him everything he requested because the LORD his God's power was with him.

7 Some of the Israelites and some of the priests and the Levites, the singers and gatekeepers and the temple servants also came up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes.

8 They reached Jerusalem in the fifth month, in the seventh year of the king.

9 The journey from Babylon began on the first day of the first month, and they came to Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month, for the gracious hand of his God was upon him.

10 Ezra had determined to study and perform the LORD's Instruction, and to teach law and justice in Israel.

11 This is a copy of the letter that Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest and scribe, a scholar of the text of the LORD's commandments and his requirements for Israel:

12 Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Instruction from the God of heaven. Peace! And now

13 I decree that any of the people of Israel or their priests or Levites in my kingdom who volunteer to go to Jerusalem with you may go.

14 You are sent by the king and his seven counselors to investigate Judah and Jerusalem according to the Instruction from your God, which is in your hand.

15 You should bring the silver and gold that the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem,

16 together with any of the silver and gold that you find in the entire province of Babylonia. You should also bring the spontaneous gifts of the people and the priests, given freely for God's house in Jerusalem.

17 With this money you will be careful to buy bulls, rams, and lambs, as well as their grain offerings and their drink offerings. And you will offer them on the altar of God's house in Jerusalem.

18 As long as it is God's will, you and your colleagues may do what you think best with the rest of the silver and gold.

19 You will deliver the equipment that has been given to you for the service of God's house to the God of Jerusalem.

20 If anything else is required for God's house that you are responsible to provide, you may provide it from the royal treasury.

21 I, King Artaxerxes, decree to all of the treasurers in the province Beyond the River: Whatever Ezra the priest and scribe of the Instruction from the God of heaven requires of you, it must be provided precisely,

22 even up to one hundred kikkars of silver, one hundred kors of wheat, one hundred baths of wine, one hundred baths of oil, and unlimited salt.

23 Whatever the God of heaven commands will be done carefully for the house of the God of heaven, or wrath will come upon the realm of the king and his heirs.

24 You must also know that it is illegal for you to charge tribute, custom, or dues on any of the priests and Levites, the singers, the doorkeepers, the temple servants, or other servants of this house of God.

25 And you, Ezra, based on the divine wisdom that you have, appoint supervisors and judges to adjudicate among all the people in the province Beyond the River who know the laws of your God. You will also teach those who do not know them.

26 Let judgment be strictly carried out upon anyone who does not obey the Instruction from your God and the law of your king, including death, banishment, confiscation of property, or imprisonment.

27 Bless the LORD, the God of our ancestors, who has moved the king to glorify the LORD's house in Jerusalem,

28 and who has demonstrated his graciousness for me before the king and his counselors and all the king's mighty officers. I took courage because the LORD my God's power was with me. I gathered leaders from Israel to go up with me.

1 These are the heads of the families, and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me during the rule of King Artaxerxes:

2 of the family of Phinehas, Gershom; of Ithamar, Daniel; of David, Hattush,

3 Shecaniah's son; of Parosh, Zechariah and with him were registered 150 men;

4 of Pahath-moab, Eliehoenai, Zerahiah's son and with him 200 men;

5 of Zattu, Shecaniah, Jahaziel's son and with him 300 men;

6 of Adin, Ebed, Jonathan's son and with him 50 men;

7 of Elam, Jeshaiah, Athaliah's son and with him 70 men;

8 of Shephatiah, Zebadiah, Michael's son and with him 80 men;

9 of Joab, Obadiah, Jehiel's son and with him 218 men;

10 of Bani, Shelomith, Josiphiah's son and with him 160 men;

11 of Bebai, Zechariah, Bebai's son and with him 28 men;

12 of Azgad, Johanan, Hakkatan's son and with him 110 men;

13 of the last of Adonikam, namely Eliphelet, Jeuel, and Shemaiah and with them 60 men;

14 of Bigvai, Uthai and Zaccur and with them were 70 men.

15 I gathered them by the river that runs to Ahava, and there we camped for three days. As I reviewed the people and the priests, I found no Levites there.

16 So I called for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, all leaders, together with Joiarib and Elnathan, who were wise.

17 I sent them to Iddo, the leader at the place named Casiphia, telling them what to say to Iddo and his colleagues the temple servants at Casiphia, namely, to send us ministers for God's house.

18 Because we were favored by God, they brought us Sherebiah, a skillful man of the family of Mahli, Levi's son and Israel's grandson, together with his sons and relatives so that there were eighteen in total.

19 They also brought us Hashabiah and with him Jeshaiah of the family of Merari, together with his relatives and their sons so that there were twenty in total.

20 In addition, there were two hundred twenty temple servants whom David and the princes had appointed to serve the Levites. These were all recorded by name.

21 Then I called for a fast there at the Ahava River so that we might submit before our God and ask of him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our possessions.

22 I had been ashamed to ask the king for a group of soldiers and cavalry to help us in facing enemies on the way, because we had told the king, "The power of God favors all who seek him, but his fierce wrath is against all who abandon him."

23 So we fasted and prayed to our God for this, and he responded to us.

24 Then I selected twelve of the leading priests, Sherebiah and Hashabiah and ten of their relatives with them.

25 I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the equipment, the offering for the house of our God that the king, his counselors, his officials, and all Israel present there had offered.

26 I weighed out into their keeping six hundred fifty kikkars of silver, one hundred silver containers weighing a certain number of kikkars, one hundred kikkars of gold,

27 twenty gold bowls worth one thousand darics, and two containers of highly polished copper, which were as precious as gold.

28 I said to them, "You are holy to the LORD, and the equipment is holy; the silver and the gold are a spontaneous gift to the LORD, the God of your ancestors.

29 Guard them carefully until you weigh them out in Jerusalem before the officials of the priests, the Levites, and the heads of the families of Israel, within the rooms of the LORD's house."

30 So the priests and the Levites received the silver and the gold and the utensils as they were weighed out, in order to bring them to Jerusalem, to our God's house.

31 Then we left the Ahava River on the twelfth day of the first month to go to Jerusalem. The power of our God was with us; he saved us from the power of the enemy and ambushes along the way.

32 After arriving in Jerusalem, we rested there three days.

33 On the fourth day, the silver and the gold and the equipment were weighed out in our God's house into the care of the priest named Meremoth, Uriah's son, together with Eleazar, Phinehas' son; and the Levites, Jozabad, Jeshua's son, and Noadiah, Binnui's son.

34 Everything was counted and weighed, and the total weight was recorded.

35 At that time, those who had come from the captivity, the returned exiles, offered as entirely burned offerings to the God of Israel twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and twelve male goats as a purification offering. All this was an entirely burned offering to the LORD.

36 They also delivered the king's orders to the royal chief administrators and governors of the province Beyond the River, who supported the people and God's house.

1 Later, Jesus himself appeared again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. This is how it happened:

2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus ), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, Zebedee's sons, and two other disciples were together.

3 Simon Peter told them, "I'm going fishing." They said, "We'll go with you." They set out in a boat, but throughout the night they caught nothing.

4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples didn't realize it was Jesus.

5 Jesus called to them, "Children, have you caught anything to eat?" They answered him, "No."

6 He said, "Cast your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." So they did, and there were so many fish that they couldn't haul in the net.

7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It's the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard it was the Lord, he wrapped his coat around himself (for he was naked) and jumped into the water.

8 The other disciples followed in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they weren't far from shore, only about one hundred yards.

9 When they landed, they saw a fire there, with fish on it, and some bread.

10 Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you've just caught."

11 Simon Peter got up and pulled the net to shore. It was full of large fish, one hundred fifty-three of them. Yet the net hadn't torn, even with so many fish.

12 Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." None of the disciples could bring themselves to ask him, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Lord.

13 Jesus came, took the bread, and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish.

14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

15 When they finished eating, Jesus asked Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" Simon replied, "Yes, Lord, you know I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs."

16 Jesus asked a second time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Simon replied, "Yes, Lord, you know I love you." Jesus said to him, "Take care of my sheep."

17 He asked a third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter was sad that Jesus asked him a third time, "Do you love me?" He replied, "Lord, you know everything; you know I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep.

18 I assure you that when you were younger you tied your own belt and walked around wherever you wanted. When you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and another will tie your belt and lead you where you don't want to go."

19 He said this to show the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. After saying this, Jesus said to Peter, "Follow me."

20 Peter turned around and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them. This was the one who had leaned against Jesus at the meal and asked him, "Lord, who is going to betray you?"

21 When Peter saw this disciple, he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about him?"

22 Jesus replied, "If I want him to remain until I come, what difference does that make to you? You must follow me."

23 Therefore, the word spread among the brothers and sisters that this disciple wouldn't die. However, Jesus didn't say he wouldn't die, but only, "If I want him to remain until I come, what difference does that make to you?"

24 This is the disciple who testifies concerning these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.

25 Jesus did many other things as well. If all of them were recorded, I imagine the world itself wouldn't have enough room for the scrolls that would be written.