Ezra 1
Ezra
The Decree of Cyrus
1In a the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, ▼▼Cyrus reigned 559-530 b.c.
the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah was fulfilled. c The Lord put it into the mind d of King Cyrus to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom and to put it in writing: 2 This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build Him a house at Jerusalem in Judah. e 3 Whoever is among His people, may his God be with him, and may he go to Jerusalem in Judah and build the house of the Lord, the God of Israel, f the God who is in Jerusalem. 4Let every survivor, g wherever he lives, be assisted by the men of that region with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, along with a freewill offering for the house of God in Jerusalem.”
Return from Exile
5 So the family leaders of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and Levites – everyone God had motivated ▼▼Lit everyone whose spirit God had stirred
,
i – prepared to go up and rebuild the Lord’s house in Jerusalem. 6 All their neighbors supported them ▼▼Lit supported their hands
,
k with silver articles, gold, goods, livestock, and valuables, in addition to all that was given as a freewill offering. 7 King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the Lord’s house that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and had placed in the house of his gods. l 8 King Cyrus of Persia had them brought out under the supervision of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. m 9 This was the inventory:30 gold basins, 1,000 silver basins,29 silver knives, 10 30 gold bowls,
410 various ▼
▼Or similar
silver bowls, and 1,000 other articles. 11The gold and silver articles totaled 5,400. Sheshbazzar brought all of them when the exiles went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.
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