This reference is to everything that has happened in Ezra 1:1 – 6:22, especially the Passover celebration following the completion of the temple.1 Since Artaxerxes’ reign only began in 465 BC, and the second group of Jews only returned in his seventh year (458 BC), it is now roughly fifty-seven years since the temple has been complete (515 BC).
1 Now after this, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah,