- In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia,
in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved
the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his
realm and to put it in writing:
- "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 build a temple for him at Jerusalem
in Judah.
- Anyone of his people among you -- may his
God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple
of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem.
- And the people of any place where survivors
may now be living are to provide him with silver and gold, with goods and
livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.'"
- Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin,
and the priests and Levites -- everyone whose heart God had moved -- prepared
to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.
- All their neighbors assisted them with
articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable
gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings.
- Moreover, King Cyrus brought out the articles
belonging to the temple of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away
from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god.
- Cyrus king of Persia had them brought by
Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince
of Judah.
- This was the inventory: gold dishes 30
silver dishes 1,000 silver pans 29
- gold bowls 30 matching silver bowls 410
other articles 1,000
- In all, there were 5,400 articles of gold
and of silver. Sheshbazzar brought all these along when the exiles came
up from Babylon to Jerusalem.
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