Ezra 1
1 In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, Yahweh fulfilled his word that came from the mouth of Jeremiah, and stirred Cyrus's spirit. Cyrus' voice went out over his entire kingdom. This is what was written and spoken:
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:
2 “Cyrus, king of Persia, says: Yahweh, God of Heaven, gave me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he appointed me to build for him a house in Jerusalem in Judea.
“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, who has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, has appointed me to build a house for Him at Jerusalem in Judah.
3 Whoever is from his people (may his God be with him) may go up to Jerusalem and build a house for Yahweh, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem.
Whoever among you belongs to 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; He is the God who is in Jerusalem.
4 People of any part of the kingdom where survivors of that land are living should provide them with silver and gold, possessions and animals, as well as a freewill offering for God's house in Jerusalem.”
And let every survivor, 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.’”
5 Then the heads of the ancestors' clans of Judah and Benjamin, the priests and Levites, and everyone whose spirit God stirred to go and build his house arose.
So the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and Levites—everyone whose spirit God had stirred—prepared to go up and rebuild the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.
6 Those around them supported their work with silver and gold objects, possessions, animals, valuables, and freewill offerings.
And all their neighbors supported them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuables, in addition to all their freewill offerings.
7 Cyrus king of Persia also released the objects belonging to Yahweh's house that Nebuchadnezzar had brought from Jerusalem and put in his own gods' houses.
King Cyrus also brought out the articles belonging to the house of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the temple of his gods.
8 Cyrus put them into the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out for Sheshbazzar, Judea's leader.
Cyrus king of Persia had them brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.
9 This was their number: thirty gold basins, one thousand silver basins, twenty-nine other basins,
This was the inventory: 30 gold dishes, 1,000 silver dishes, 29 silver utensils,
10 thirty gold bowls, 410 small silver bowls, and one thousand additional objects.
30 gold bowls, 410 matching silver bowls, and 1,000 other articles.
11 There were 5,400 gold and silver items in all. Sheshbazzar brought all of them when the exiles went from Babylon to Jerusalem.
In all, there were 5,400 gold and silver articles. Sheshbazzar brought all these along when the exiles went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.
