2 Chronicles 36:19–23

¹⁹ⁱAnd they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels. ²⁰He ^jtook into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, ^kand they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, ²¹to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had ^lenjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate ^mit kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

The Proclamation of Cyrus

²²ⁿNow in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, ^othat the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, ^pthe Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: ²³“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.’ ”