A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
Ezra 1
Ezra 1 is the opening chapter of the fifteenth book of the Bible. The 11-verse chapter records the decree of the Persian king Cyrus authorizing the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.
The chapter opens in the first year of Cyrus, around 538 BC, just after Persia has conquered Babylon. The chapter notes that God moved Cyrus to issue the decree, fulfilling a prophecy of Jeremiah that the exile would last seventy years.
The decree itself is quoted in full. Cyrus announces that God has charged him to build a temple in Jerusalem, and that any Jew in his empire who wishes to go up and rebuild it has permission to do so. Those who stay behind are urged to support those who go, with silver, gold, livestock, and freewill offerings for the temple.
Family heads of Judah and Benjamin, along with priests and Levites, prepare to make the journey. Their neighbors contribute material support as instructed.
Cyrus also returns the temple vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had carried off from Jerusalem and placed in the temple of his own god. The chapter ends with an inventory: 5,400 articles of gold and silver, handed over to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah, who will lead the first wave home.
Verse 1. In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:
Verse 2. “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, who has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, has appointed me to build a house for Him at Jerusalem in Judah.
Verse 3. Whoever among you belongs to 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; He is the God who is in Jerusalem.
Verse 4. And let every survivor, 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.’”
Verse 5. So the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and Levites—everyone whose spirit God had stirred—prepared to go up and rebuild the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.
Verse 6. And all their neighbors supported them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuables, in addition to all their freewill offerings.
Verse 7. King Cyrus also brought out the articles belonging to the house of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the temple of his gods.
Verse 8. Cyrus king of Persia had them brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.
Verse 9. This was the inventory: 30 gold dishes, 1,000 silver dishes, 29 silver utensils,
Verse 10. 30 gold bowls, 410 matching silver bowls, and 1,000 other articles.
Verse 11. In all, there were 5,400 gold and silver articles. Sheshbazzar brought all these along when the exiles went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.
Last updated: