Ezra 1

The LORD stirs the spirit of Cyrus

¹In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, so that the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah would be fulfilled, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, and he sent a proclamation throughout his whole kingdom and also put it in writing:^{a 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 charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. ³Whoever among you belongs to his people, may their God be with them, and let them go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the house of the LORD, the God of Israel; he is the God who is in Jerusalem. ⁴And wherever any who are left are living as outsiders, let the people of that place help them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, as well as freewill offerings for the house of God in Jerusalem.^{b 5}Then the heads of the families of Judah and Benjamin got ready, with the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred, to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem. ⁶Everyone around them supported them, giving silver vessels and gold, goods and livestock and costly gifts, besides everything that was given as a freewill offering.

The vessels of the house counted out to Sheshbazzar

⁷King Cyrus also brought out the vessels of the house of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods. ⁸Cyrus king of Persia had them brought out by Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the leader of Judah.^{c 9}This was their count: thirty gold basins, 1,000 silver basins, twenty-nine knives,^d

¹⁰thirty gold bowls, 410 silver bowls of a second kind, and 1,000 other vessels.

¹¹In all there were 5,400 vessels of gold and silver. Sheshbazzar brought all of them up when the exiles were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem.^e