Ezra 1

Modern

Literal

The Proclamation of Cyrus

¹In 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:

¹And in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of YHWH by the mouth of Jeremiah, YHWH stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, and he caused to pass over a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also in writing, saying,

²“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.

²“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘All the kingdoms of the earth YHWH, God of the heavens, has given to me, and He has commanded to me to build for Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

³Whoever 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.

³Who 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 YHWH, God of Israel—He is the God who is in Jerusalem.

⁴And 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.’”

⁴And whoever is left in any place where he is a sojourner, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with livestock, along with the freewill offerings for the house of God, which is in Jerusalem.’”

⁵So 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.

⁵And the heads of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin arose, and the priests, and the Levites, with all whose spirit God had moved to go up and build the house of YHWH, which is in Jerusalem.

⁶And 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.

⁶And all around them strengthened their hands with articles of silver, with gold, with goods, and with livestock, and with precious things, in addition to all that was freely offered.

Cyrus Restores the Holy Vessels

⁷King 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.

⁷And King Cyrus brought out the articles of the house of YHWH that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem, and he put them in the temple of his gods.

⁸Cyrus king of Persia had them brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.^a

⁸And Cyrus king of Persia brought them out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and he counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.

⁹This was the inventory:

30 gold dishes,^a

1,000 silver dishes,

29 silver utensils,

⁹And these are their numbers: Gold dishes, thirty; silver dishes, a thousand; knives, nine and twenty;

¹⁰30 gold bowls,

410 matching silver bowls,

and 1,000 other articles.

¹⁰gold bowls, thirty; bowls of silver, seconds, four hundred and ten; other articles, a thousand.

¹¹In all, there were 5,400 gold and silver articles. Sheshbazzar brought all these along when the exiles went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

¹¹All the articles of the gold and of the silver were five thousand and four hundred. All this Sheshbazzar brought up with the going up of the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem.