Ezra 1

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia. He issued a proclamation throughout his kingdom and also put it in writing: “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem in Judah. Whoever among you belongs to his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the house of the LORD, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem. Let the people of every place where a survivor is living as a foreigner support him with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, besides the freewill offering for the house of God in Jerusalem.” Then the heads of the ancestral houses of Judah and Benjamin, the priests, and the Levites arose—everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem. All their neighbors supported them with silver articles, gold, goods, livestock, and precious gifts, besides everything that was freely offered. King Cyrus brought out the vessels of the house of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods. Cyrus king of Persia brought them out through Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. This was their number: 30 gold bowls, 1,000 silver bowls, 29 knives, 30 gold cups, 410 silver cups of a second kind, and 1,000 other vessels. The total of the gold and silver vessels was 5,400. Sheshbazzar brought them all up when the exiles came up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Rights and attribution