Ezra 1–3

Cyrus Helps the Exiles to Return

1:1–3pp—2Ch 36:22–23

1In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah,^a the Lord moved the heart^b of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:

²“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:

“ ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed^c me to build^d a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. ³Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. ⁴And in any locality where survivors^e may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold,^f with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings^g for the temple of God^h in Jerusalem.’ ”ⁱ

⁵Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin,^j and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved^k—prepared to go up and build the house^l of the Lord in Jerusalem. ⁶All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold,^m with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings.

⁷Moreover, King Cyrus brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god.^{an 8}Cyrus king of Persia had them brought by Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar^o the prince of Judah.

⁹This was the inventory:

gold dishes 30

silver dishes 1,000

silver pans^b 29

¹⁰gold bowls 30

matching silver bowls 410

other articles 1,000

¹¹In all, there were 5,400 articles of gold and of silver. Sheshbazzar brought all these along with the exiles when they came up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

The List of the Exiles Who Returned

2:1–70pp—Ne 7:6–73

2Now these are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles,^p whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon^q had taken captive to Babylon (they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to their own town,^{r 2}in company with Zerubbabel,^s Joshua,^t Nehemiah, Seraiah,^u Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum and Baanah):

The list of the men of the people of Israel:

³the descendants of Parosh^v 2,172

⁴of Shephatiah 372

⁵of Arah 775

⁶of Pahath-Moab (through the line of Jeshua and Joab) 2,812

⁷of Elam 1,254

⁸of Zattu 945

⁹of Zakkai 760

¹⁰of Bani 642

¹¹of Bebai 623

¹²of Azgad 1,222

¹³of Adonikam^w 666

¹⁴of Bigvai 2,056

¹⁵of Adin 454

¹⁶of Ater (through Hezekiah) 98

¹⁷of Bezai 323

¹⁸of Jorah 112

¹⁹of Hashum 223

²⁰of Gibbar 95

²¹the men of Bethlehem^x 123

²²of Netophah 56

²³of Anathoth 128

²⁴of Azmaveth 42

²⁵of Kiriath Jearim,^a Kephirah and Beeroth 743

²⁶of Ramah^y and Geba 621

²⁷of Mikmash 122

²⁸of Bethel and Ai^z 223

²⁹of Nebo 52

³⁰of Magbish 156

³¹of the other Elam 1,254

³²of Harim 320

³³of Lod, Hadid and Ono 725

³⁴of Jericho^a 345

³⁵of Senaah 3,630

³⁶The priests:

the descendants of Jedaiah^b (through the family of Jeshua) 973

³⁷of Immer^c 1,052

³⁸of Pashhur^d 1,247

³⁹of Harim^e 1,017

⁴⁰The Levites:^f

the descendants of Jeshua^g and Kadmiel (of the line of Hodaviah) 74

⁴¹The musicians:^h

the descendants of Asaph 128

⁴²The gatekeepersⁱ of the temple:

the descendants of

Shallum, Ater, Talmon,

Akkub, Hatita and Shobai 139

⁴³The temple servants:^j

the descendants of

Ziha, Hasupha, Tabbaoth,

⁴⁴Keros, Siaha, Padon,

⁴⁵Lebanah, Hagabah, Akkub,

⁴⁶Hagab, Shalmai, Hanan,

⁴⁷Giddel, Gahar, Reaiah,

⁴⁸Rezin, Nekoda, Gazzam,

⁴⁹Uzza, Paseah, Besai,

⁵⁰Asnah, Meunim, Nephusim,

⁵¹Bakbuk, Hakupha, Harhur,

⁵²Bazluth, Mehida, Harsha,

⁵³Barkos, Sisera, Temah,

⁵⁴Neziah and Hatipha

⁵⁵The descendants of the servants of Solomon:

the descendants of

Sotai, Hassophereth, Peruda,

⁵⁶Jaala, Darkon, Giddel,

⁵⁷Shephatiah, Hattil,

Pokereth-Hazzebaim and Ami

⁵⁸The temple servants^k and the descendants of the servants of Solomon 392

⁵⁹The following came up from the towns of Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Kerub, Addon and Immer, but they could not show that their families were descended^l from Israel:

⁶⁰The descendants of

Delaiah, Tobiah and Nekoda 652

⁶¹And from among the priests:

The descendants of

Hobaiah, Hakkoz and Barzillai (a man who had married a daughter of Barzillai the Gileadite^m and was called by that name).

⁶²These searched for their family records, but they could not find them and so were excluded from the priesthoodⁿ as unclean. ⁶³The governor ordered them not to eat any of the most sacred food^o until there was a priest ministering with the Urim and Thummim.^p

⁶⁴The whole company numbered 42,360, ⁶⁵besides their 7,337 male and female slaves; and they also had 200 male and female singers.^{q 66}They had 736 horses,^r 245 mules, ⁶⁷435 camels and 6,720 donkeys.

⁶⁸When they arrived at the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, some of the heads of the families^s gave freewill offerings toward the rebuilding of the house of God on its site. ⁶⁹According to their ability they gave to the treasury for this work 61,000 darics^b of gold, 5,000 minas^c of silver and 100 priestly garments.

⁷⁰The priests, the Levites, the musicians, the gatekeepers and the temple servants settled in their own towns, along with some of the other people, and the rest of the Israelites settled in their towns.^t

Rebuilding the Altar

3When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns,^u the people assembled^v together as one in Jerusalem. ²Then Joshua^w son of Jozadak^x and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel^y and his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses^z the man of God. ³Despite their fear^a of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening sacrifices.^{b 4}Then in accordance with what is written, they celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles^c with the required number of burnt offerings prescribed for each day. ⁵After that, they presented the regular burnt offerings, the New Moon^d sacrifices and the sacrifices for all the appointed sacred festivals of the Lord,^e as well as those brought as freewill offerings to the Lord. ⁶On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid.

Rebuilding the Temple

⁷Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters,^f and gave food and drink and olive oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring cedar logs^g by sea from Lebanon^h to Joppa, as authorized by Cyrusⁱ king of Persia.

⁸In the second month^j of the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel^k son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak and the rest of the people (the priests and the Levites and all who had returned from the captivity to Jerusalem) began the work. They appointed Levites twenty^l years old and older to supervise the building of the house of the Lord. ⁹Joshua^m and his sons and brothers and Kadmiel and his sons (descendants of Hodaviah^a) and the sons of Henadad and their sons and brothers—all Levites—joined together in supervising those working on the house of God.

¹⁰When the builders laidⁿ the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets,^o and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise^p the Lord, as prescribed by David^q king of Israel.^{r 11}With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord:

“He is good;

his love toward Israel endures forever.”^s

And all the people gave a great shout^t of praise to the Lord, because the foundation^u of the house of the Lord was laid. ¹²But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple,^v wept^w aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. ¹³No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy^x from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.