1Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying:

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 appointed me to rebuild for Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

3Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be with him! Lit he is to go upGo up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel; He is the God who is in Jerusalem.

4And every survivor, at whatever place he may Or reside as a strangerlive, the people of Lit histhat place are to support him with silver and gold, with equipment and cattle, together with a Or freewill offeringvoluntary offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.’ ”

5Then the heads of fathers’ households of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites rose up, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.

6And all of those around them Lit strengthened their handsencouraged them with articles of silver, with gold, with equipment, cattle, and with valuables, aside from everything that was given as a Or freewill offeringvoluntary offering.

7Also King Cyrus brought out the articles of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and put in the house of his gods;

8and Cyrus, king of Persia, had them brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and he counted them out to Sheshbazzar, the leader of Judah.

9Now this was their number: thirty gold dishes, a thousand silver dishes, twenty nine Heb obscure; other possible meanings are knives, censersduplicates;

10thirty gold bowls, 410 silver bowls of a second kind, and a thousand other articles.

11All the articles of gold and silver totaled 5,400. Sheshbazzar brought them all up with the exiles who went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.