1Now in the first year of the reign of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order that the word of the LORD that was spoken by Jeremiah (2 Chron.36:22-23) might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to make a proclamation throughout all his kingdom of Persia, and to put this in writing,
2“Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, ‘The LORD God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and He has appointed me to build Him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
3Any of you who are of His people may go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah; and build the house of the LORD God of Israel Who is in Jerusalem; and may your God be with you.
4And let any Jewish survivors that remain anywhere, help those who return to build, by providing them with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, and freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.”
5Then the heads of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, all those whose spirit God had prepared, rose to go up to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.
6And all their neighbors who were around them supported them with gifts - vessels of silver, gold, goods, livestock, and other precious things, besides all that was willingly offered.
7Also King Cyrus brought out the articles of the house of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried off from Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his gods;
8These Cyrus had Mithredath, the treasurer, bring out and count them out to Sheshbazzar, the governor of Judah.
9And this is the inventory of those items: thirty platters of gold; a thousand platters of silver; twenty-nine knives (incense burners),
10Thirty bowls of gold; four hundred ten silver bowls of a second sort; and a thousand other articles.
11All the articles of gold and of silver totaled five thousand, four hundred, that Sheshbazzar brought back from Babylon to Jerusalem, along with the returning exiles. Easy Reader Bible: Purple Letter Edition © 2023 by Jim Musser. Used by Permission. All rights Reserved. Bible Hub |
    |