1 Esdras 2:1–15

¹In the first year of Cyrus as king of the Persians, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, ²the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king 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 at Jerusalem, which is in Judea. ⁵If any one of you, therefore, is of his people, may his Lord be with him, and let him 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 man, wherever he may live, be helped by the men of his place with gold and silver, ⁷with gifts and with horses and cattle, besides the other things added as votive offerings for the temple of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.”

⁸Then 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; ⁹and their 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.

¹⁰Cyrus the king also brought out the holy vessels of the Lord which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and stored in his temple of idols. ¹¹When Cyrus king of the Perians brought these out, he gave them to Mithridates his treasurer, ¹²and by him they were given to Sheshbazzar the governor of Judea. ¹³The number of these was: a thousand gold cups, a thousand silver cups, twenty-nine silver censers, thirty gold bowls, two thousand four hundred and ten silver bowls, and a thousand other vessels. ¹⁴All the vessels were handed over, gold and silver, five thousand four hundred and sixty-nine, ¹⁵and they were carried back by Sheshbazzar with the returning exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem.