Ezra 1

¹ In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia. He sent a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom, and also put it in writing:

² "This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has appointed me to build a house for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

³ Whoever among you belongs to his people—may his God be with him—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 is in Jerusalem.

⁴ And let every survivor, in whatever place he is living, be assisted by the people of that place with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, along with a freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem."

⁵ Then the heads of the families of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose spirit God had stirred—rose up to go and build the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem.

⁶ All their neighbors supported them with articles of silver, gold, goods, livestock, and valuables, besides all the freewill offerings.

⁷ King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the house of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods.

⁸ 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 the inventory: thirty gold dishes, one thousand silver dishes, twenty-nine knives,

¹⁰ thirty gold bowls, four hundred and ten matching silver bowls, and one thousand other articles.

¹¹ In all, there were five thousand four hundred gold and silver articles. Sheshbazzar brought all these up when the exiles went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.