Ezra 1

CHAPTER 1

The Proclamation of Cyrus

^1aNow in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia—in order to complete the word of ¹Yahweh from the mouth of Jeremiah—Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he ^bhad a proclamation pass throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying:

²“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia,

‘Yahweh, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and ^aHe has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

³‘Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be with him! Let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and rebuild the house of Yahweh, the God of Israel; ^aHe is the God who is in Jerusalem.

⁴‘So everyone who remains, at whatever place he may sojourn, let the men of ¹that place support him with silver and gold, with goods and cattle, together with a freewill offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.’”

Articles from Yahweh’s House Brought to Jerusalem

⁵Then the heads of fathers’ households of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites arose, ^athat is of everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of Yahweh which is in Jerusalem.

⁶All those around them ^1astrengthened them with articles of silver, with gold, with possessions, with cattle, and with precious things, aside from all that was given as a freewill offering.

^7aAlso King Cyrus brought out the articles of the house of Yahweh, ^bwhich Nebuchadnezzar had brought out from Jerusalem and put in the house of his gods;

⁸and Cyrus, king of Persia, had them brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and he counted them out to ^aSheshbazzar, the prince of Judah.

⁹Now this was their number: 30 ^agold dishes, 1,000 silver dishes, 29 ¹duplicates;

¹⁰30 gold bowls, 410 silver bowls of a second kind and 1,000 other articles.

¹¹All the articles of gold and silver numbered 5,400. Sheshbazzar brought them all up with the exiles who went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.