Ezra 1

Now in year one of Cyrus, the king of Persia, in order to accomplish the word of God from the mouth of Jeremiah, God stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, the king of Persia. So he caused a sound to pass throughout all his kingdom, and also in writing, saying:

“Thus says Cyrus, the king of Persia: God, the God of heaven, has given to me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he himself has appointed me to build for him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. \*

Whoever among you is from all his people, may his God be with him, and may he go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and may he build the house of God, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem.

And every one who is remaining in all of the places where he is sojourning there, let the men of his place lift him with silver and with gold, and with goods and with livestock, along with the freewill offering for the house of God, which is in Jerusalem.” \*

Then the heads of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, that is, all whose spirit God had stirred up, arose to go up to build the house of God, which is in Jerusalem.

And all those around them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with livestock, and with precious gifts, apart from all that was freely offered. \*

And the king Cyrus brought out the vessels of the house of God that Nebuchadnezzar had brought out from Jerusalem and had put in the house of his gods.

And Cyrus, the king of Persia, brought them out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer. And he counted them out to Sheshbazzar, the ruler of Judah. \*

And this was their number: 30 basins of gold, 1,000 basins of silver, 29 knives,

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

All the vessels of gold and of silver were 5,400. Sheshbazzar brought up all this with the going up of the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem. \*