2 Chronicles 36:17-23

Christian Standard Bible

¹⁷ So he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans,^(A) who killed their fit young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. He had no pity on young men or young women, elderly or aged; he handed them all over to him. ¹⁸ He took everything to Babylon—all the articles of God’s temple, large and small, the treasures of the Lord’s temple, and the treasures of the king and his officials. ¹⁹ Then the Chaldeans burned God’s temple.^(B) They tore down Jerusalem’s wall, burned all its palaces, and destroyed all its valuable articles.

²⁰ He deported those who escaped from the sword to Babylon, and they became servants to him and his sons until the rise of the Persian^[a] kingdom.^{(C) 21} This fulfilled the word of the Lord through Jeremiah,^(D) and the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation^(E) until seventy years were fulfilled.

The Decree of Cyrus

²² In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia,^(F) in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken through^[b] Jeremiah,^(G) the Lord roused the spirit of King Cyrus^(H) of Persia to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom and also to put it in writing:

²³ This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: The Lord, the God of the heavens, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build him a temple at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up, and may the Lord his God be with him.