Today started the book of Ezra which begins where 2 Chronicles ends. It began with the proclamation of Cyrus king of Persia. In his first year, the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might have be fulfilled.
The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:
“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 his God be with him, and let him go to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel–he is the God who is in Jerusalem.
Ezra 1:2-4
And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”
That got the attention of all the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up and rebuild the house of the Lord.
Everyone who was there aided them with vessels of silver and gold and all that Cyrus proclaimed. Cyrus also brought out the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar had taken away from Jerusalem and placed in the house of his gods.
Cyrus took those and placed them in the care of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. There were:
- 30 basins of gold
- 1,000 basins of silver
- 29 censers
- 30 bowls of gold
- 410 bowls of silver
- 1,000 other vessels
All the vessels of gold and silver were 5,400. All of this Sheshbazzar brought up when the exiles were brought up from Babylonia to Jerusalem.
Then it went on to list the people of the province that were brought out of captivity; the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried captive to Babylonia. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to their own town.
The families were listed out and numbered for the men of the people of Israel; the priests; the Levites, singers and gatekeepers; the temple servants, Solomon’s servants; and all those that could not prove their heritage.
The whole assembly together was 42,360, besides their male and female servants, of whom were 7,337, and they had 200 male and female singers. Their horses were 736, their mules were 245, their camels were 435, and their donkeys were 6,720.
Some of the heads of the families, when they went to the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, made freewill offerings for the house of God, to erect it on its site. According to their ability they gave to the treasury of the work 61,000 darics of gold, 5,000 minas of silver, and 100 priests’ garments.
The priests, the Levites, some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants lived in their own towns, and all the rest of Israel in their towns.