Ezra 6:1-15

(1)  Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in Babylonia, in the house of the archives where the documents were stored.

(2)  And in Ecbatana, the capital that is in the province of Media, a scroll was found on which this was written: "A record.

(3)  In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered, and let its foundations be retained. Its height shall be sixty cubits and its breadth sixty cubits,

(4)  with three layers of great stones and one layer of timber. Let the cost be paid from the royal treasury.

(5)  And also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that is in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back to the temple that is in Jerusalem, each to its place. You shall put them in the house of God.

(6)  "Now therefore, Tattenai, governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and your associates the governors who are in the province Beyond the River, keep away.

(7)  Let 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 site.

(8)  Moreover, I make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of God. The cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province from Beyond the River.

(9)  And whatever is needed--bulls, rams, or sheep for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, or oil, as the priests at Jerusalem require--let that be given to them day by day without fail,

(10)  that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons.

(11)  Also I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill.

(12)  May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem. I Darius make a decree; let it be done with all diligence."

(13)  Then, according to the word sent by Darius the king, Tattenai, the governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates did with all diligence what Darius the king had ordered.

(14)  And the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished their building by decree of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia;

(15)  and this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.

Psalms 138:1-8

(1)  Of David. I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise;

(2)  I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

(3)  On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased.

(4)  All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O LORD, for they have heard the words of your mouth,

(5)  and they shall sing of the ways of the LORD, for great is the glory of the LORD.

(6)  For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar.

(7)  Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me.

(8)  The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

John 17:1-26

(1)  When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,

(2)  since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

(3)  And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

(4)  I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

(5)  And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

(6)  "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

(7)  Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.

(8)  For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.

(9)  I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

(10)  All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

(11)  And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

(12)  While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

(13)  But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

(14)  I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

(15)  I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

(16)  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

(17)  Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

(18)  As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

(19)  And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

(20)  "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,

(21)  that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

(22)  The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,

(23)  I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

(24)  Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

(25)  O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.

(26)  I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

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