Ezra 1
Cyrus the Great lets Israelites return to build God’s temple
In the first year of Cyrus the Great’s reign over the Persian empire, the Existing One stirred up Cyrus’s spirit to make a proclamation. The proclamation fulfilled Jeremiah’s prophecy, and it said:
“Persia’s King Cyrus says: Heaven’s God the Existing One has given me all the kingdoms in the world, and he told me to build him a house in Jerusalem which is in Judah. If any of you are his people, you are free to go to Jerusalem and rebuild a house for Israel’s God the Existing One. May your God be with you. All the survivors, no matter where they are should find help from his people: silver, gold, goods, animals, and freewill offerings for God’s house in Jerusalem.”
That caught everyone’s attention whose spirit God stirred up to go rebuild his house, including the patriarchs of Judah and Benjamin, as well as the priests and Levites. All their neighbors helped them with silver, gold, goods, animals, expensive clothes, and everything else that was freely offered. King Cyrus brought out the valuables that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Existing One’s house in Jerusalem to the temples of his own gods. King Cyrus’s treasurer Mithredath brought them out and counted them to Judah’s Prince Sheshbazzar in the following quantities:
30 gold basins
1,000 silver basins
29 censers
30 gold bowls
410 silver bowls
1,000 other vessels
All together Sheshbazzar returned 5,400 vessels of silver and gold from Babylonia to Jerusalem.