Cyrus’ Proclamation

1 ^(A)Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he ^(B)sent a proclamation throughout his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying:

² “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and ^(C)He has appointed me to rebuild for Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. ³ Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be with him! ^[a]Go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel; ^(D)He is the God who is in Jerusalem. ⁴ And every survivor, at whatever place he may ^[b]live, the people of ^[c]that place are to support him with silver and gold, with equipment and cattle, together with a ^[d]voluntary offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.’”

Holy Vessels Restored

⁵ Then the heads of fathers’ households of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites rose up, ^(E)everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. ⁶ And all of those around them ^[e](F)encouraged them with articles of silver, with gold, with equipment, cattle, and with valuables, aside from everything that was given as a ^[f]voluntary offering. ^7 (G)Also King Cyrus brought out the articles of the house of the Lord, ^(H)which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and put in the house of his gods; ⁸ and Cyrus, king of Persia, had them brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and he counted them out to ^(I)Sheshbazzar, the leader of Judah. ⁹ Now this was their number: thirty ^(J)gold dishes, a thousand silver dishes, twenty nine ^[g]duplicates; ¹⁰ thirty gold bowls, 410 silver bowls of a second kind, and a thousand other articles. ¹¹ All the articles of gold and silver totaled 5,400. Sheshbazzar brought them all up with the exiles who went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

The Fourfold Hallelujah

19 After these things I heard something like a ^(A)loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying,

“^(B)Hallelujah! ^(C)Salvation, ^(D)glory, and power belong to our God, ^2 (E)because His ^(F)judgments are ^(G)true and righteous; for He has judged the ^(H)great prostitute who was corrupting the earth with her sexual immorality, and He has ^(I)avenged the blood of His bond-servants ^[a]on her.” ³ And a second time they said, “^(J)Hallelujah! ^(K)Her smoke rises forever and ever.” ⁴ And the ^(L)twenty-four elders and the ^(M)four living creatures ^(N)fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne, saying, “^(O)Amen. ^(P)Hallelujah!” ⁵ And a voice came from the throne, saying,

“^(Q)Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, ^(R)you who fear Him, the small and the great.” ⁶ Then I heard something like ^(S)the voice of a great multitude and like ^(T)the sound of many waters, and like the ^(U)sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying,

“^(V)Hallelujah! For the ^(W)Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.

Marriage of the Lamb

⁷ Let’s rejoice and be glad and ^(X)give the glory to Him, because ^(Y)the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His ^[b](Z)bride has prepared herself.” ⁸ It was given to her to clothe herself in ^(AA)fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the ^(AB)righteous acts of the ^[c]saints.

⁹ Then ^(AC)he *said to me, “^(AD)Write: ‘^(AE)Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.’” And he *said to me, “^(AF)These are the true words of God.” ¹⁰ Then ^(AG)I fell at his feet to worship him. ^(AH)But he *said to me, “^[d]Do not do that; I am a ^(AI)fellow servant of yours and your brothers and sisters who ^(AJ)hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”