Ezra
Chapter 1

1

In the first year of Cyrus, ¹ king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD inspired King Cyrus of Persia to issue this proclamation throughout his kingdom, both by word of mouth and in writing:

2

"Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: 'All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me, and he has also charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

3

Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people, let him go up, and may his God be with him!

4

Let everyone who has survived, in whatever place he may have dwelt, be assisted by the people of that place with silver, gold, goods, and cattle, together with free-will offerings for the house of God in Jerusalem.'"

5

Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and Levites--everyone, that is, whom God had inspired to do so--prepared to go up to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.

6

All their neighbors gave them help in every way, with silver, gold, goods, and cattle, and with many precious gifts besides all their free-will offerings.

7

King Cyrus, too, had the utensils of the house of the LORD brought forth which Nebuchadnezzar had taken away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his god.

8

² Cyrus, king of Persia, had them brought forth by the treasurer Mithredath, and counted out to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah.

9

This was the inventory: sacks of goldware, thirty; sacks of silverware, one thousand and twenty-nine;

10

golden bowls, thirty; silver bowls, four hundred and ten; other ware, one thousand pieces.

11

³ Total of the gold-and silver ware: five thousand four hundred pieces. All these Sheshbazzar took with him when the exiles were brought back from Babylon to Jerusalem.

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Footnotes

¹ [1] In the first year of Cyrus: as sovereign over the world empire which began with his conquest of Babylon; that is, 538 B.C.

² [8] Sheshbazzar: very probably the fourth son of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, taken captive to Babylon in 598 B.C., listed in 1 Chron 3:18 as Senneser; if so, he was the uncle of Zerubbabel (Ezra 3:2-4); see note on 1 Chron 3:18.

³ [11] Total . . . five thousand four hundred pieces: either this figure or the figures given for one or more of the items listed (Ezra 1:9-10) have been corrupted in the transmission of the text.

New American Bible Copyright © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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