Ezra 1-3

Holman Christian Standard Bible

The Decree of Cyrus

1 In^(A) the first year of Cyrus king of Persia,^[a] the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah was fulfilled.^(B) The Lord put it into the mind^(C) of King Cyrus to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom and to put it in writing:

²This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build Him a house at Jerusalem in Judah.^(D) ³Whoever is among His people, may his God be with him, and may he go to Jerusalem in Judah and build the house of the Lord, the God of Israel,^(E) the God who is in Jerusalem. ⁴Let every survivor,^(F) wherever he lives, be assisted by the men of that region with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, along with a freewill offering for the house of God in Jerusalem.”

Return from Exile

⁵So the family leaders of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and Levites—everyone God had motivated^[b]^(G)—prepared to go up and rebuild the Lord’s house in Jerusalem. ⁶All their neighbors supported them^[c]^(H) with silver articles, gold, goods, livestock, and valuables, in addition to all that was given as a freewill offering. ⁷King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the Lord’s house that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and had placed in the house of his gods.^(I) ⁸King Cyrus of Persia had them brought out under the supervision of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.^(J) ⁹This was the inventory:

30 gold basins, 1,000 silver basins,
29 silver knives, ¹⁰30 gold bowls,
410 various^[d] silver bowls, and 1,000 other articles.

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

The Exiles Who Returned

2 These^(K) now are the people of the province who came from those captive exiles King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon^[e] had deported to Babylon.^(L) They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town. ²They came with Zerubbabel,^(M) Jeshua,^(N) Nehemiah, Seraiah,^(O) Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah.

The number of the Israelite men included:^[f]

³Parosh’s descendants^(P)	2,172
⁴Shephatiah’s descendants	372
⁵Arah’s descendants	775
⁶Pahath-moab’s descendants:
Jeshua’s and Joab’s descendants	2,812
⁷Elam’s descendants	1,254
⁸Zattu’s descendants	945
⁹Zaccai’s descendants	760
¹⁰Bani’s descendants	642
¹¹Bebai’s descendants	623
¹²Azgad’s descendants	1,222
¹³Adonikam’s descendants^(Q)	666
¹⁴Bigvai’s descendants	2,056
¹⁵Adin’s descendants	454
¹⁶Ater’s descendants: of Hezekiah	98
¹⁷Bezai’s descendants	323
¹⁸Jorah’s descendants	112
¹⁹Hashum’s descendants	223
²⁰Gibbar’s descendants	95
²¹Bethlehem’s^(R) people	123
²²Netophah’s men	56
²³Anathoth’s men	128
²⁴Azmaveth’s people	42
²⁵Kiriatharim’s, Chephirah’s, and Beeroth’s people	743
²⁶Ramah’s^(S) and Geba’s people	621
²⁷Michmas’s men	122
²⁸Bethel’s and Ai’s^(T) men	223
²⁹Nebo’s people	52
³⁰Magbish’s people	156
³¹the other Elam’s people	1,254
³²Harim’s people	320
³³Lod’s, Hadid’s, and Ono’s people	725
³⁴Jericho’s^(U) people	345
³⁵Senaah’s people	3,630

³⁶The priests included:

Jedaiah’s descendants of the house of Jeshua	973
³⁷Immer’s descendants	1,052
³⁸Pashhur’s descendants	1,247
³⁹and Harim’s descendants	1,017

⁴⁰The Levites included:

Jeshua’s and Kadmiel’s descendants
from Hodaviah’s descendants	74

⁴¹The singers included:

Asaph’s^(V) descendants

128

⁴²The gatekeepers’^(W) descendants included:

Shallum’s descendants, Ater’s descendants,
Talmon’s descendants, Akkub’s descendants,
Hatita’s descendants, Shobai’s descendants, in all	139

⁴³The temple servants^(X) included:

Ziha’s descendants, Hasupha’s descendants,
Tabbaoth’s descendants, ⁴⁴Keros’s descendants,
Siaha’s descendants, Padon’s descendants,
⁴⁵Lebanah’s descendants, Hagabah’s descendants,
Akkub’s descendants, ⁴⁶Hagab’s descendants,
Shalmai’s^[g] descendants, Hanan’s descendants,
⁴⁷Giddel’s descendants, Gahar’s descendants,
Reaiah’s descendants, ⁴⁸Rezin’s descendants,
Nekoda’s descendants, Gazzam’s descendants,
⁴⁹Uzza’s descendants, Paseah’s descendants,
Besai’s descendants, ⁵⁰Asnah’s descendants,
Meunim’s^[h] descendants, Nephusim’s^[i] descendants,
⁵¹Bakbuk’s descendants, Hakupha’s descendants,
Harhur’s descendants, ⁵²Bazluth’s descendants,
Mehida’s descendants, Harsha’s descendants,
⁵³Barkos’s descendants, Sisera’s descendants,
Temah’s descendants, ⁵⁴Neziah’s descendants,
and Hatipha’s descendants.

⁵⁵The descendants of Solomon’s servants^(Y) included:

Sotai’s descendants, Hassophereth’s descendants,
Peruda’s descendants, ⁵⁶Jaalah’s descendants,
Darkon’s descendants, Giddel’s descendants,
⁵⁷Shephatiah’s descendants, Hattil’s descendants,
Pochereth-hazzebaim’s descendants, and Ami’s descendants.
⁵⁸All the temple servants
and the descendants of Solomon’s servants	392.

⁵⁹The following are those who came from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer but were unable to prove that their families and ancestry were Israelite:

⁶⁰Delaiah’s descendants,
Tobiah’s descendants,
Nekoda’s descendants	652

⁶¹and from the descendants of the priests: the descendants of Hobaiah, the descendants of Hakkoz, the descendants of Barzillai—who had taken a wife from the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite and was called by their name. ⁶²These searched for their entries in the genealogical records, but they could not be found, so they were disqualified from the priesthood. ⁶³The governor^(Z) ordered them not to eat the most holy things until there was a priest who could consult the Urim and Thummim.^(AA)

⁶⁴The whole combined assembly numbered	42,360
⁶⁵not including their 7,337 male and female slaves,
and their 200 male and female singers.^(AB)
⁶⁶They had 736 horses, 245 mules,
⁶⁷435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys.

Gifts for the Work

⁶⁸After they arrived at the Lord’s house in Jerusalem, some of the family leaders gave freewill offerings^(AC) for the house of God in order to have it rebuilt on its original site. ⁶⁹Based on what they could give, they gave 61,000 gold coins,^[j] 6,250 pounds^[k] of silver, and 100 priestly garments to the treasury^(AD) for the project. ⁷⁰The priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, temple servants, and some of the people settled in their towns, and the rest of Israel settled in their towns.^(AE)

Sacrifice Restored

3 By the seventh month,^(AF) the Israelites had settled in their towns, and the people gathered together in Jerusalem.^(AG) ²Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers the priests along with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel^(AH) and his brothers began to build the altar of Israel’s God in order to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God.^(AI) ³They set up the altar on its foundation and offered burnt offerings for the morning and evening on it to the Lord even though they feared the surrounding peoples.^(AJ) ⁴They celebrated the Festival of Booths as prescribed, and offered burnt offerings each day, based on the number specified by ordinance for each festival day.^(AK) ⁵After that, they offered the regular burnt offering and the offerings for the beginning of each month^[l]^(AL) and for all the Lord’s appointed holy occasions, as well as the freewill offerings brought to^[m] the Lord.

⁶On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord,^(AM) even though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid. ⁷They gave money to the stonecutters and artisans, and gave food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so they could bring cedar wood from Lebanon to Joppa by sea,^(AN) according to the authorization given them by King Cyrus of Persia.^(AO)

Rebuilding the Temple

⁸In the second month of the second year after they arrived at God’s house in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak,^(AP) and the rest of their brothers, including the priests, the Levites, and all who had returned to Jerusalem from the captivity, began to build. They appointed the Levites who were 20 years old or more to supervise the work on the Lord’s house.^(AQ) ⁹Jeshua with his sons and brothers, Kadmiel with his sons, and the sons of Judah^[n] and of Henadad, with their sons and brothers, the Levites,^(AR) joined together to supervise those working on the house of God.

Temple Foundation Completed

¹⁰When the builders had laid the foundation of the Lord’s temple, the priests, dressed in their robes and holding trumpets, and the Levites descended from Asaph,^(AS) holding cymbals, took their positions to praise the Lord, as King David of Israel had instructed.^(AT) ¹¹They sang with praise and thanksgiving to the Lord: “For He is good; His faithful love to Israel endures forever.”^(AU) Then all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord because the foundation of the Lord’s house had been laid.^(AV)

¹²But many of the older priests, Levites, and family leaders, who had seen the first temple, wept loudly when they saw the foundation of this house,^(AW) but many others shouted joyfully. ¹³The people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shouting from that of the^[o] weeping,^(AX) because the people were shouting so loudly. And the sound was heard far away.