Ezra 01 Cyrus invites the Jews to return to Jerusalem and build the temple

 Ezra 01

Cyrus invites the Jews to return to Jerusalem and build the temple

1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, and he sent a proclamation throughout his kingdom, and put it in writing, saying:

2 Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

3 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 the God who dwells in Jerusalem.

 4 And whoever sojourns in any of the places where he sojourns, the men of his place shall help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with livestock, besides the freewill offerings for the house of the Lord who is in Jerusalem.

5 Then the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all those whose spirit God had stirred, arose to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.

6 And all who lived in the surrounding country strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, and with gold, with goods, and with livestock, and with precious things, besides all that was freely given.

7 King Cyrus also brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought from Jerusalem, and which he had put in the house of his gods. 

8 These Cyrus king of Persia brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, who gave them to Sheshbazzar prince of Judah. 

​​9 And this is the number of them: thirty gold basins, a thousand silver basins, twenty-nine knives. 

10 Thirty gold bowls, four hundred and ten silver bowls of another kind, and a thousand other vessels. 

11 All the vessels of gold and silver were five thousand four hundred. All these did Sheshbazzar bring when the captives came up from Babylon to Jerusalem.