1 In the first year of Koresh king of Persia, in order for the word of Adonai prophesied by Yirmeyahu to be fulfilled, Adonai stirred up the spirit of Koresh king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his whole kingdom, which he also put in writing, as follows:

² “Here is what Koresh king of Persia says: Adonai, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms on earth; and he has charged me to build him a house in Yerushalayim, in Y’hudah. ³ Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him! He may go up to Yerushalayim, in Y’hudah, and build the house of Adonai the God of Isra’el, the God who is in Yerushalayim. ⁴ Let every survivor, no matter where he lives, be helped by his neighbors with silver, gold, goods and animals, in addition to the voluntary offering for the house of God in Yerushalayim.”

⁵ The heads of fathers’ clans in Y’hudah and Binyamin, along with the cohanim, the L’vi’im, and indeed all whose spirit God had stirred, set out to go up and rebuild the house of Adonai in Yerushalayim. ⁶ All their neighbors supported them by giving them articles of silver, gold, goods, animals, and valuables, besides all their voluntary offerings.

⁷ In addition, Koresh the king brought out the vessels from the house of Adonai which N’vukhadnetzar had taken from Yerushalayim and put in the house of his god. ⁸ Koresh king of Persia had Mitr’dat the treasurer bring them out and make an inventory of them for Sheshbatzar the prince of Y’hudah. ⁹ The list was as follows:

¹¹ In all there were 5,400 articles of gold and silver. Sheshbatzar took all of them along when the exiles were brought up from Bavel to Yerushalayim.

2 Here is a list of the people of the province who had been exiled, carried off to Bavel by N’vukhadnetzar king of Bavel, but who later returned from exile and went up to Yerushalayim and Y’hudah, each to his own city; ² they went with Z’rubavel, Yeshua, Nechemyah, S’rayah, Re‘elyah, Mordekhai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rechum and Ba‘anah.

The number of men from the people of Isra’el:

⁵⁹ The following went up from Tel-Melach, Tel-Harsha, K’ruv, Adan and Immer; but they could not state which fathers’ clan they or their children belonged to, [so it was not clear] whether they were from Isra’el:

⁶¹ and of the descendants of the cohanim:

⁶² These tried to locate their genealogical records, but they weren’t found. Therefore they were considered defiled and were not allowed to serve as cohanim. ⁶³ The Tirshata told them not to eat any of the especially holy food until a cohen appeared who could consult the urim and tumim.

⁶⁴ The entire assembly numbered 42,360 — ⁶⁵ not including their male and female slaves, of whom there were 7,337. They also had 200 male and female singers.

⁶⁶ Their horses numbered 736; their mules, 245; ⁶⁷ their camels, 435; and their donkeys, 6,720.

⁶⁸ Some of the heads of fathers’ clans, when they came to the house of Adonai in Yerushalayim, made voluntary offerings for rebuilding the house of God on its site. ⁶⁹ According to their means they gave into the treasury for the work 61,000 gold darkmonim [about two-thirds of a ton], 5,000 manim of silver [just over three tons], and a hundred tunics for the cohanim.

⁷⁰ So the cohanim, the L’vi’im, some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers and the temple servants lived in their towns and all Isra’el in their towns.

3 When the seventh month arrived, after the people of Isra’el had resettled in the towns, the people gathered with one accord in Yerushalayim. ² Then Yeshua the son of Yotzadak with his fellow cohanim, and Z’rubavel the son of Sh’alti’el with his kinsmen, organized rebuilding the altar of the God of Isra’el; so that they could offer burnt offerings on it, as is written in the Torah of Moshe the man of God. ³ They set up the altar on its former bases. Despite feeling threatened by the peoples of the [surrounding] countries; they offered on it burnt offerings to Adonai, the morning and evening burnt offerings.

⁴ They observed the festival of Sukkot as written, offering daily the number of burnt offerings prescribed for each day, ⁵ and afterwards the regular burnt offering, the offerings for Rosh-Hodesh and those for all the designated times set apart for Adonai, as well as those of everyone who volunteered a voluntary offering to Adonai. ⁶ From the first day of the seventh month, they began offering burnt offerings to Adonai, even though the foundation of Adonai’s temple had not yet been laid. ⁷ They also gave money for the stone-workers and carpenters, as well as food, drink and olive oil for the people of Tzidon and Tzor bringing cedar logs from the L’vanon to the sea and on to Yafo, in accordance with the authorization granted by Koresh king of Persia.

⁸ In the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Yerushalayim, in the second month, Z’rubavel the son of Sh’alti’el, Yeshua the son of Yotzadak, the rest of their kinsmen the cohanim and L’vi’im, and all who had come out of exile to Yerushalayim began the project. They appointed the L’vi’im aged twenty and up to direct work in the house of Adonai. ⁹ Yeshua and his sons and brothers, Kadmi’el and his sons, and Y’hudah’s sons together directed the workers in the house of God; also the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their kinsmen the L’vi’im.

¹⁰ When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of Adonai, the cohanim in their robes, with trumpets, and the L’vi’im the sons of Asaf, with cymbals, took their places to praise Adonai, as David king of Isra’el had instructed. ¹¹ They sang antiphonally, praising and giving “thanks to Adonai, for he is good, for his grace continues forever” toward Isra’el. All the people raised a great shout of praise to Adonai, because the foundation of the house of Adonai had been laid. ¹² But many of the cohanim, L’vi’im and heads of fathers’ clans, the old men who had seen the first house standing on its foundation, wept out loud when they saw this house; while others shouted out loud for joy — ¹³ so that the people couldn’t distinguish the noise of the joyful shouting from the noise of the people’s weeping; for the people were shouting so loudly that the noise could be heard at a great distance.