Ezra 1

The Decree of Cyrus

1In ^athe first year of Cyrus king of Persia, ^bthe word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah was fulfilled. ^cThe Lord put it into the mind ^dof King Cyrus to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom and to put it in writing:

²This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build Him a house at Jerusalem in Judah. ^e3Whoever is among His people, may his God be with him, and may he go to Jerusalem in Judah and build the house of the Lord, the God of Israel, ^fthe God who is in Jerusalem. ⁴Let every survivor, ^gwherever he lives, be assisted by the men of that region with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, along with a freewill offering for the house of God in Jerusalem.”

Return from Exile

⁵So the family leaders of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and Levites—everyone God had motivated ^hi—prepared to go up and rebuild the Lord’s house in Jerusalem. ⁶All their neighbors supported them ^jkwith silver articles, gold, goods, livestock, and valuables, in addition to all that was given as a freewill offering. ⁷King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the Lord’s house that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and had placed in the house of his gods. ^l8King Cyrus of Persia had them brought out under the supervision of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. ^m9This was the inventory:

30 gold basins, 1,000 silver basins,

29 silver knives, ¹⁰30 gold bowls,

410 various ⁿsilver bowls, and 1,000 other articles.

¹¹The gold and silver articles totaled 5,400. Sheshbazzar brought all of them when the exiles went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.