Josippon

In the first year of the reign of Cyrus, king of Persia, God our Lord stirred up his spirit, and the king remembered his vow that he had sworn to send the exile and the sacred vessels from Babylon to Jerusalem. All the elders of the exile were called before Cyrus the king, who said to them: "Who among you of all the people of the Lord of the Heavens will be stirred to go up to Jerusalem, to the site of the footstool of the great and mighty God, to rebuild his house and his temple destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, who did more evil than all the kings who were before him; let him go up and build, and may his God be with him when he is thus stirred. I, Cyrus, servant of the living God through whose command I was enthroned, will give of my wealth and of my treasures for all repair of the House of the great God by whose command I rule over the kingdoms of the Medes and Persians and who helped me destroy the kingdom of the Chaldeans."

Thereupon all the elders of the exile, including Ezra the scribe and Nehemiah, son of Hakhaliah, and Mordecai and Yeshua and the remaining heads of the exile, went up and came to Jerusalem and built the Temple of God according to the measure that the king had given them. They built the altar in proper form and arranged logs on the altar and placed sacrificial meat upon the logs, but they did not find the sacred fire. Ezra the scribe and Nehemiah and Mordecai and Yeshua and all the heads of the exile prayed before God and said: "Master of all the worlds, You put into the heart of the king of Persia to render honor to Your city and rebuild Your Temple and send forth Your poor servants and priests to sacrifice and to offer up burnt offerings as did our pious ancestors before You. Behold, we, Your servants, have come to this place and have prepared Your altar according to its measure, and we have slaughtered a sacrifice and have arranged logs upon the altar, and sacred meat we have given according to custom, but we do not have authority to sacrifice before You a strange fire, for the sacred fire is not among us, because Jeremiah, Your servant, and the chiefs of Your priests who went into exile in the days of Nebuchadnezzar hid it. Now, what shall we do, Lord of the Heavens? Give us advice and assistance, for the authority is in Your hands to aid and strengthen Your servants."

Now, while they were praying like this, it happened that there was an old man, one of the priests, and he remembered the place where Jeremiah had hidden the sacred fire. That old man went outside the camp, and all the old men ran after him; and behold, under the section of the wall was a cistern with a great stone over it, and it was plastered over with whitewash. They broke the plaster and rolled the stone from atop the cistern and found at the bottom of the cistern water oily and thick and dense as honey. They returned and told Ezra. Ezra came to the cistern and said to the priests: "Go down and bring the water in your hands, but let not a stranger touch it, only for priests of the seed of Aaron the priest, for that is the sacred fire." So the priests descended and brought the water with their own hands; and they went to the temple and poured the water upon the altar over the sacrifice and logs. Now, when they had done this, suddenly a most terrible fire burst out and kindled the flame; and the fire consumed and increased and was greatly strengthened so that the priests fled from the house unable to withstand the fire. The fire increased and devoured the offering and the logs and encircled the whole house, purifying the vessels and the Temple. The fire in the house subsided, remaining only on the altar, where it belonged. From that day on, they put logs on it, and the fire continued until the second exile.

The Ark of the Covenant was not there, for Jeremiah the prophet had taken it with all the curtains that Moses, God's servant, had made in the desert and bore them to Mount Nebo and found there a cave and placed them inside it. The priests of that time pursued Jeremiah to recognize the place. When Jeremiah looked back and saw the priests, he was angry and swore an oath: "The place will not be known until I and God's servant Elijah come. Then we shall return the Ark to its place in the Holy of Holies under the wings of the cherubim."

From that day hence, our ancestors offered up their sacrifices and their burnt offerings and their whole offerings and their daily offerings regularly. And the kings of Persia assisted them with gold and silver, wheat, oil and wine, and bulls and rams annually, for the kings of Persia loved the Temple of our God and His Sanctuary.