1 Esdras 2:1–14

Cyrus Permits the Exiles to Return

²In the first year of Cyrus as king of the Persians, so that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished,^{* 2}the Lord stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of the Persians, and he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:

³“Thus says Cyrus king of the Persians: The Lord of Israel, the Lord Most High, has made me king of the world, ⁴and he has commanded me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judea. ⁵If any of you, therefore, are of his nation, may your Lord be with you;ⁱ go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judea, and build the house of the Lord of Israel—he is the Lord who dwells in Jerusalem—⁶and let each of you, wherever you may live, be helped by your neighbors with gold and silver, with gifts and with horses and cattle, besides the other things added as votive offerings for the temple of the Lord that is in Jerusalem.”

⁷Then arose the heads of families of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, and all whose spirit the Lord had stirred to go up to build the house in Jerusalem for the Lord; ⁸their neighbors helped them with everything, with silver and gold, with horses and cattle, and with a very great number of votive offerings from many whose hearts were stirred.

⁹King Cyrus also brought out the holy vessels of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and stored in his temple of idols.^{* 10}When King Cyrus of the Persians brought these out, he gave them to Mithridates, his treasurer, ¹¹and by him they were given to Sheshbazzar, the governor of Judea.^{* 12}The number of these was: one thousand gold cups, one thousand silver cups, twenty-nine silver censers, thirty gold bowls, two thousand four hundred ten silver bowls, and one thousand other vessels.^{* 13}All the vessels were handed over, gold and silver, five thousand four hundred sixty-nine,^{* 14}and they were carried back by Sheshbazzar with the returning exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem.^*