¹⁰ “For thus says the Lord: ^(A)When seventy years are completed for Babylon, ^(B)I will visit you, ^(C)and I will fulfill to you my promise ^(D)and bring you back to this place.

² in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to ^(A)the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.

⁵ “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in ^(A)the fifth month and in ^(B)the seventh, for these ^(C)seventy years, ^(D)was it ^(E)for me that you fasted?

^22 (A)They shall be carried to Babylon ^(B)and remain there ^(C)until the day when I visit them, declares the Lord. ^(D)Then I will bring them back ^(E)and restore them to this place.”

¹² Then after ^(A)seventy years are completed, ^(B)I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, ^(C)the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, ^(D)making the land an everlasting waste.

⁴² “For thus says the Lord: ^(A)Just as I have brought all this great disaster upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good that I promise them. ^43 (B)Fields shall be bought in this land ^(C)of which you are saying, ‘It is a desolation, without man or beast; ^(D)it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’ ⁴⁴ Fields shall be bought for money, and ^(E)deeds shall be signed and ^(F)sealed and ^(G)witnessed, ^(H)in the land of Benjamin, ^(I)in the places about Jerusalem, ^(J)and in the cities of Judah, ^(K)in the cities of the hill country, ^(L)in the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negeb; for ^(M)I will restore their fortunes, declares the Lord.”

^6 (A)I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. ^(B)I will build them up, and not tear them down; ^(C)I will plant them, and not pluck them up. ^7 (D)I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, ^(E)and they shall be my people ^(F)and I will be their God, ^(G)for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

²¹ to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had ^(A)enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate ^(B)it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

The Proclamation of Cyrus

^22 (C)Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, ^(D)that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, ^(E)the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: ²³ “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.’”

The Proclamation of Cyrus

1 ^(F)In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, ^(G)that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so ^(H)that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:

² “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and ^(I)he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.