Ezra 1
1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, so that the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia. He had a proclamation made throughout his whole 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 whoever remains, wherever he lives as a foreigner, let the people of that place help him with silver, gold, goods, and animals, along with a freewill offering for the house of God in Jerusalem.’”
5 Then the heads of the families of Judah and Benjamin, the priests, and the Levites rose up—all whose spirits God had stirred—to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.
6 Everyone around them strengthened their hands with silver articles, gold, goods, animals, and precious things, in addition to everything freely offered.
7 King Cyrus brought out the articles from the house of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods.
8 Cyrus king of Persia had them brought out by Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah.
9 This was their number: thirty gold bowls, one thousand silver bowls, twenty-nine knives,
10 thirty gold cups, 410 second-grade silver cups, and one thousand other articles.
11 All the gold and silver articles numbered 5,400. Sheshbazzar brought them all up when the exiles came up from Babylon to Jerusalem.
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