The Decree of Cyrus

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it in writing (Ezra 1:1). The king stated that the Lord, the God of heaven, had given him all the kingdoms of the earth and charged him to build a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah (Ezra 1:2). He declared that any of the people of God among his subjects could go up to Jerusalem to build the house of the Lord God of Israel (Ezra 1:3). For those remaining behind, the people of their places were to support them with silver, gold, goods, livestock, and freewill offerings for the temple.

The leaders of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and the Levites, rose up to go and build the house of the Lord (Ezra 1:5). Everyone whose spirit God had stirred prepared for the journey. Their neighbors assisted them with vessels of silver, gold, goods, beasts, and precious things, in addition to all that was willingly offered (Ezra 1:6). The text does not say how many individuals refused to go or the specific distance they traveled.

King Cyrus also brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods (Ezra 1:7). Cyrus had these counted out by Mithredath the treasurer to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah (Ezra 1:8). The inventory included thirty basins of gold, one thousand basins of silver, twenty-nine knives, thirty gold bowls, four hundred and ten silver bowls of a second sort, and one thousand other vessels (Ezra 1:9-10). All the vessels of gold and silver numbered five thousand four hundred (Ezra 1:11). Sheshbazzar brought all these items with the exiles when they went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.