²⁰ He carried into exile^(A) to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants^(B) to him and his successors until the kingdom of Persia came to power. ²¹ The land enjoyed its sabbath rests;^(C) all the time of its desolation it rested,^(D) until the seventy years^(E) were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.

Cyrus Helps the Exiles to Return^(A)

1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah,^(B) the Lord moved the heart^(C) of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:

⁵ Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin,^(K) and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved^(L)—prepared to go up and build the house^(M) of the Lord in Jerusalem. ⁶ All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold,^(N) with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings.

⁷ 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.^{[a](O) 8} Cyrus king of Persia had them brought by Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar^(P) the prince of Judah.

⁹ This was the inventory:

¹¹ In all, there were 5,400 articles of gold and of silver. Sheshbazzar brought all these along with the exiles when they came up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

The List of the Exiles Who Returned^(A)

2 Now these are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles,^(B) whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon^(C) had taken captive to Babylon (they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to their own town,^{(D) 2} in company with Zerubbabel,^(E) Joshua,^(F) Nehemiah, Seraiah,^(G) Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum and Baanah):

⁶⁸ When they arrived at the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, some of the heads of the families^(AE) gave freewill offerings toward the rebuilding of the house of God on its site. ⁶⁹ According to their ability they gave to the treasury for this work 61,000 darics^[b] of gold, 5,000 minas^[c] of silver and 100 priestly garments.

⁷⁰ The priests, the Levites, the musicians, the gatekeepers and the temple servants settled in their own towns, along with some of the other people, and the rest of the Israelites settled in their towns.^(A)

Rebuilding the Altar

3 When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns,^(A) the people assembled^(B) together as one in Jerusalem. ² Then Joshua^(C) son of Jozadak^(D) and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel^(E) and his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses^(F) the man of God. ³ Despite their fear^(G) of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening sacrifices.^{(H) 4} Then in accordance with what is written, they celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles^(I) with the required number of burnt offerings prescribed for each day. ⁵ After that, they presented the regular burnt offerings, the New Moon^(J) sacrifices and the sacrifices for all the appointed sacred festivals of the Lord,^(K) as well as those brought as freewill offerings to the Lord. ⁶ On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid.

Rebuilding the Temple

⁷ Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters,^(L) and gave food and drink and olive oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring cedar logs^(M) by sea from Lebanon^(N) to Joppa, as authorized by Cyrus^(O) king of Persia.