Ezra 1
1 In order to fulfill the Lord's prophecy given through Jeremiah, the Lord encouraged Cyrus, king of Persia, to issue a proclamation throughout his kingdom and also to put it in writing, saying,
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the LORD’s word by Jeremiah’s mouth might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
2 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, who has given to me all the kingdoms of the earth, has given me the responsibility to build a Temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah.
“Cyrus king of Persia says, ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has commanded me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
3 Anyone among you who belongs to his people can go to Jerusalem in Judah to rebuild this Temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, who lives in Jerusalem. May your God be with you.
Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD, the God of Israel (he is God), which is in Jerusalem.
4 Wherever survivors are currently living, let them be helped by the people that region with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, together with a voluntary donation for God's Temple in Jerusalem.’”
Whoever is left, in any place where he lives, let the men of his place help him with silver, with gold, with goods, and with animals, in addition to the free will offering for God’s house which is in Jerusalem.’”
5 Then God encouraged the family leaders of Judah and Benjamin, as well as the priests and Levites to go and rebuild the Lord's Temple in Jerusalem.
Then the heads of fathers’ households of Judah and Benjamin, the priests and the Levites, all whose spirit God had stirred to go up, rose up to build the LORD’s house which is in Jerusalem.
6 All their neighbors supported them with gifts of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with other valuable items, in addition to all their voluntary donations.
All those who were around them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, with animals, and with precious things, in addition to all that was willingly offered.
7 King Cyrus also retrieved the items belonging to the Lord's Temple that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and placed in the temple of his god.
Also Cyrus the king brought out the vessels of the LORD’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought out of Jerusalem, and had put in the house of his gods;
8 Cyrus had Mithredath the treasurer retrieve them, who counted them and gave them to Sheshbazzar, the leader of Judah.
even those, Cyrus king of Persia brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.
9 This was the list: 30 gold basins, 1,000 silver basins, 29 silver silverware,
This is the number of them: thirty platters of gold, one thousand platters of silver, twenty-nine knives,
10 30 gold bowls, 410 matching silver bowls, and 1,000 other items.
thirty bowls of gold, four hundred ten silver bowls of a second kind, and one thousand other vessels.
11 In total there were 5,400 gold and silver items. When the exiles left Babylon to go to Jerusalem Sheshbazzar took all these along with them.
All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand four hundred. Sheshbazzar brought all these up when the captives were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem.
