Cyrus Allows the Exiles to Return

²² In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia,^[a] the Lord fulfilled the prophecy he had given through Jeremiah.^[b] He stirred the heart of Cyrus to put this proclamation in writing and to send it throughout his kingdom:

Cyrus Allows the Exiles to Return

1 In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia,^[a] the Lord fulfilled the prophecy he had given through Jeremiah.^[b] He stirred the heart of Cyrus to put this proclamation in writing and to send it throughout his kingdom:

⁵ Then God stirred the hearts of the priests and Levites and the leaders of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple of the Lord. ⁶ And all their neighbors assisted by giving them articles of silver and gold, supplies for the journey, and livestock. They gave them many valuable gifts in addition to all the voluntary offerings.

⁷ King Cyrus himself brought out the articles that King Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Lord’s Temple in Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his own gods. ⁸ Cyrus directed Mithredath, the treasurer of Persia, to count these items and present them to Sheshbazzar, the leader of the exiles returning to Judah.^{[c] 9} This is a list of the items that were returned:

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

Exiles Who Returned with Zerubbabel

2 Here is the list of the Jewish exiles of the provinces who returned from their captivity. King Nebuchadnezzar had deported them to Babylon, but now they returned to Jerusalem and the other towns in Judah where they originally lived. ² Their leaders were Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah.

This is the number of the men of Israel who returned from exile:

³⁶ These are the priests who returned from exile:

⁴⁰ These are the Levites who returned from exile:

⁴³ The descendants of the following Temple servants returned from exile:

⁵⁵ The descendants of these servants of King Solomon returned from exile:

⁵⁸ In all, the Temple servants and the descendants of Solomon’s servants numbered 392.

⁵⁹ Another group returned at this time from the towns of Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Kerub, Addan, and Immer. However, they could not prove that they or their families were descendants of Israel. ⁶⁰ This group included the families of Delaiah, Tobiah, and Nekoda—a total of 652 people.

⁶¹ Three families of priests—Hobaiah, Hakkoz, and Barzillai—also returned. (This Barzillai had married a woman who was a descendant of Barzillai of Gilead, and he had taken her family name.) ⁶² They searched for their names in the genealogical records, but they were not found, so they were disqualified from serving as priests. ⁶³ The governor told them not to eat the priests’ share of food from the sacrifices until a priest could consult the Lord about the matter by using the Urim and Thummim—the sacred lots.

⁶⁴ So a total of 42,360 people returned to Judah, ⁶⁵ in addition to 7,337 servants and 200 singers, both men and women. ⁶⁶ They took with them 736 horses, 245 mules, ⁶⁷ 435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys.

⁶⁸ When they arrived at the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, some of the family leaders made voluntary offerings toward the rebuilding of God’s Temple on its original site, ⁶⁹ and each leader gave as much as he could. The total of their gifts came to 61,000 gold coins,^[i] 6,250 pounds^[j] of silver, and 100 robes for the priests.

⁷⁰ So the priests, the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, the Temple servants, and some of the common people settled in villages near Jerusalem. The rest of the people returned to their own towns throughout Israel.

Psalm 126

A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem.

Psalm 147