Ezra 1-6

Ezra 1

¹Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order that the word of the Lord given by the mouth of Jeremiah might come true, the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, was moved by the Lord, so that he made a public statement through all his kingdom, and put it in writing, saying,

²These are the words of Cyrus, king of Persia: The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has made me responsible for building a house for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

³Whoever there is among you of his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and take in hand the building of the house of the Lord, the God of Israel; he is the God who is in Jerusalem.

⁴And whoever there may be of the rest of Israel, living in any place, let the men of that place give him help with offerings of silver and gold and goods and beasts, in addition to the offering freely given for the house of God in Jerusalem.

⁵Then the heads of families of Judah and Benjamin, with the priests and the Levites, got ready, even all those whose spirits were moved by God to go up and take in hand the building of the Lord's house in Jerusalem.

⁶And all their neighbours gave them help with offerings of vessels of silver and gold and goods and beasts and things of great value, in addition to what was freely offered.

⁷And Cyrus the king got out the vessels of the house of the Lord which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the house of his gods;

⁸Even these Cyrus made Mithredath, the keeper of his wealth, get out, and he gave them, after numbering them, to Sheshbazzar, the ruler of Judah.

⁹And this is the number of them: there were thirty gold plates, a thousand silver plates, twenty-nine knives,

¹⁰Thirty gold basins, four hundred and ten silver basins, and a thousand other vessels.

¹¹There were five thousand, four hundred gold and silver vessels. All these were taken back by Sheshbazzar, when those who had been taken prisoner went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Ezra 2

¹Now these are the people of the divisions of the kingdom, among those who had been made prisoners by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and taken away to Babylon, who went back to Jerusalem and Judah, everyone to his town;

²Who went with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah, The number of the men of the people of Israel:

³The children of Parosh, two thousand, one hundred and seventy-two.

⁴The children of Shephatiah, three hundred and seventy-two.

⁵The children of Arah, seven hundred and seventy-five.

⁶The children of Pahath-moab, of the children of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand, eight hundred and twelve.

⁷The children of Elam, a thousand, two hundred and fifty-four.

⁸The children of Zattu, nine hundred and forty-five.

⁹The children of Zaccai, seven hundred and sixty.

¹⁰The children of Bani, six hundred and forty-two.

¹¹The children of Bebai, six hundred and twenty-three.

¹²The children of Azgad, a thousand, two hundred and twenty-two.

¹³The children of Adonikam, six hundred and sixty-six.

¹⁴The children of Bigvai, two thousand and fifty-six.

¹⁵The children of Adin, four hundred and fifty-four.

¹⁶The children of Ater, of Hezekiah, ninety-eight.

¹⁷The children of Bezai, three hundred and twenty-three.

¹⁸The children of Jorah, a hundred and twelve.

¹⁹The children of Hashum, two hundred and twenty-three.

²⁰The children of Gibbar, ninety-five.

²¹The children of Beth-lehem, a hundred and twenty-three.

²²The men of Netophah, fifty-six.

²³The men of Anathoth, a hundred and twenty-eight.

²⁴The children of Azmaveth, forty-two.

²⁵The children of Kiriath-arim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred and forty-three.

²⁶The children of Ramah and Geba, six hundred and twenty-one.

²⁷The men of Michmas, a hundred and twenty-two.

²⁸The men of Beth-el and Ai, two hundred and twenty-three.

²⁹The children of Nebo, fifty-two.

³⁰The children of Magbish, a hundred and fifty-six.

³¹The children of the other Elam, a thousand, two hundred and fifty-four.

³²The children of Harim, three hundred and twenty.

³³The children of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred and twenty-five.

³⁴The children of Jericho, three hundred and forty-five.

³⁵The children of Senaah, three thousand, six hundred and thirty.

³⁶The priests: the children of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua, nine hundred and seventy-three.

³⁷The children of Immer, a thousand and fifty-two.

³⁸The children of Pashhur, a thousand, two hundred and forty-seven.

³⁹The children of Harim, a thousand and seventeen.

⁴⁰The Levites: the children of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the children of Hodaviah, seventy-four.

⁴¹The music-makers: the children of Asaph, a hundred and twenty-eight

⁴²The children of the door-keepers: the children of Shallum, the children of Ater, the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub, the children of Hatita, the children of Shobai, a hundred and thirty-nine.

⁴³The Nethinim: the children of Ziha, the children of Hasupha, the children of Tabbaoth,

⁴⁴The children of Keros, the children of Siaha, the children of Padon,

⁴⁵The children of Lebanah, the children of Hagabah, the children of Akkub,

⁴⁶The children of Hagab, the children of Shamlai, the children of Hanan,

⁴⁷The children of Giddel, the children of Gahar, the children of Reaiah,

⁴⁸The children of Rezin, the children of Nekoda, the children of Gazzam,

⁴⁹The children of Uzza, the children of Paseah, the children of Besai,

⁵⁰The children of Asnah, the children of Meunim, the children of Nephisim,

⁵¹The children of Bakbuk, the children of Hakupha, the children of Harhur,

⁵²The children of Bazluth, the children of Mehida, the children of Harsha,

⁵³The children of Barkos, the children of Sisera, the children of Temah,

⁵⁴The children of Neziah, the children of Hatipha.

⁵⁵The children of Solomon's servants: the children of Sotai, the children of Hassophereth, the children of Peruda,

⁵⁶The children of Jaalah, the children of Darkon, the children of Giddel,

⁵⁷The children of Shephatiah, the children of Hattil, the children of Pochereth-hazzebaim, the children of Ami.

⁵⁸All the Nethinim, and the children of Solomon's servants, were three hundred and ninety-two.

⁵⁹And these were the people who went up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer. But having no knowledge of their fathers' families or offspring, it was not certain that they were Israelites;

⁶⁰The children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the children of Nekoda, six hundred and fifty-two.

⁶¹And of the children of the priests: the children of Habaiah, the children of Hakkoz, the children of Barzillai, who was married to one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and took their name.

⁶²They made search for their record among the lists of families, but their names were nowhere to be seen; so they were looked on as unclean and no longer priests.

⁶³And the Tirshatha said that they were not to have the most holy things for their food, till a priest came to give decision by Urim and Thummim.

⁶⁴The number of all the people together was forty-two thousand, three hundred and sixty,

⁶⁵As well as their men-servants and their women-servants, of whom there were seven thousand, three hundred and thirty-seven: and they had two hundred men and women to make music.

⁶⁶They had seven hundred and thirty-six horses, two hundred and forty-five transport beasts,

⁶⁷Four hundred and thirty-five camels, six thousand, seven hundred and twenty asses.

⁶⁸And some of the heads of families, when they came to the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem, gave freely of their wealth for the building up of the house of God in its place:

⁶⁹Every one, as he was able, gave for the work sixty-one thousand darics of gold, five thousand pounds of silver and a hundred priests' robes.

⁷⁰So the priests and the Levites and the people and the music-makers and the door-keepers and the Nethinim, took up their places in their towns; even all Israel in their towns.

Ezra 3

¹And when the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people came together like one man to Jerusalem.

²Then Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, with his brothers, got up and made the altar of the God of Israel for burned offerings as is recorded in the law of Moses, the man of God.

³They put the altar on its base; for fear was on them because of the people of the countries: and they made burned offerings on it to the Lord, even burned offerings morning and evening.

⁴And they kept the feast of tents, as it is recorded, making the regular burned offerings every day by number, as it is ordered; for every day what was needed.

⁵And after that, the regular burned offering and the offerings for the new moons and all the fixed feasts of the Lord which had been made holy, and the offering of everyone who freely gave his offering to the Lord.

⁶From the first day of the seventh month they made a start with the burned offerings, but the base of the Temple of the Lord had still not been put in its place.

⁷And they gave money to the stoneworkers and woodworkers; and meat and drink and oil to the people of Zidon and of Tyre, for the transport of cedar-trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, as Cyrus, king of Persia, had given them authority to do.

⁸Now in the second year of their coming into the house of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, the work was taken in hand by Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all those who had come from the land where they were prisoners to Jerusalem: and they made the Levites, of twenty years old and over, responsible for overseeing the work of the house of the Lord.

⁹Then Jeshua with his sons and his brothers, Kadmiel with his sons, the sons of Hodaviah, together took up the work of overseeing the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad with their sons and their brothers, the Levites.

¹⁰And when the builders put in position the base of the Temple of the Lord, the priests, dressed in their robes, took their places with horns, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with brass instruments, to give praise to the Lord in the way ordered by David, king of Israel.

¹¹And they gave praise to the Lord, answering one another in their songs and saying, For he is good, for his mercy to Israel is eternal. And all the people gave a great cry of joy, when they gave praise to the Lord, because the base of the Lord's house was put in place.

¹²But a number of the priests and Levites and the heads of families, old men who had seen the first house, when the base of this house was put down before their eyes, were overcome with weeping; and a number were crying out with joy:

¹³So that in the ears of the people the cry of joy was mixed with the sound of weeping; for the cries of the people were loud and came to the ears of those who were a long way off.

Ezra 4

¹Now news came to the haters of Judah and Benjamin that the people who had come back were building a Temple to the Lord, the God of Israel;

²Then they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of families, and said to them, Let us take part in the building with you; for we are servants of your God, even as you are; and we have been making offerings to him from the days of Esar-haddon, king of Assyria, who put us here.

³But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of families in Israel said to them, You have no part with us in the building of a house for our God; we ourselves will do the work together for the Lord, the God of Israel, as Cyrus, king of Persia, has given us orders.

⁴Then the people of the land made the hands of the people of Judah feeble, troubling them with fear in their building;

⁵And they gave payment to men who made designs against them and kept them from effecting their purpose, all through the time of Cyrus, king of Persia, till Darius became king.

⁶And in the time of Ahasuerus, when he first became king, they put on record a statement against the people of Judah and Jerusalem.

⁷And in the time of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his friends, sent a letter to Artaxerxes, king of Persia, writing it in the Aramaean writing and language.

⁸Rehum, the chief ruler, and Shimshai the scribe, sent a letter against Jerusalem, to Artaxerxes the king;

⁹The letter was sent by Rehum, the chief ruler, and Shimshai the scribe and their friends; the Dinaites and the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Shushanchites, the Dehaites, the Elamites,

¹⁰And the rest of the nations which the great and noble Osnappar took over and put in Samaria and the rest of the country over the river:

¹¹This is a copy of the letter which they sent to Artaxerxes the king: Your servants living across the river send these words:

¹²We give news to the king that the Jews who came from you have come to us at Jerusalem; they are building up again that uncontrolled and evil town; the walls are complete and they are joining up the bases.

¹³The king may be certain that when the building of this town and its walls is complete, they will give no tax or payment in goods or forced payments, and in the end it will be a cause of loss to the kings.

¹⁴Now because we are responsible to the king, and it is not right for us to see the king's honour damaged, we have sent to give the king word of these things,

¹⁵So that search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers: and you will see in the book of the records that this town has been uncontrolled, and a cause of trouble to kings and countries, and that there were outbursts against authority there in the past: for which reason the town was made waste.

¹⁶We give you word, that if the building of this town and its walls is made complete, there will be an end of your power in the country across the river.

¹⁷Then the king sent an answer to Rehum, the chief ruler, and Shimshai the scribe, and their friends living in Samaria, and to the rest of those across the river, saying, Peace to you:

¹⁸And now the sense of the letter which you sent to us has been made clear to me,

¹⁹And I gave orders for a search to be made, and it is certain that in the past this town has made trouble for kings, and that outbursts against authority have taken place there.

²⁰Further, there have been great kings in Jerusalem, ruling over all the country across the river, to whom they gave taxes and payments in goods and forced payments.

²¹Give an order now, that these men are to do nothing more, and that the building of the town is to be stopped, till I give an order.

²²Be certain to do this with all care: do not let trouble be increased to the king's damage.

²³Then, after reading the king's letter, Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their friends went quickly to Jerusalem, to the Jews, and had them stopped by force.

²⁴So the work of the house of God at Jerusalem came to an end; so it was stopped, till the second year of the rule of Darius, king of Persia.

Ezra 5

¹Now the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the son of Iddo, were preaching to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel.

²Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, got up and made a start at building the house of God at Jerusalem: and the prophets of God were with them, helping them.

³At the same time, Tattenai, ruler of the land across the river, and Shethar-bozenai, and their men, came to them and said, Who gave you orders to go on building this house and this wall?

⁴Then they said these words to them: What are the names of the men who are at work on this building?

⁵But the eye of their God was on the chiefs of the Jews, and they did not make them give up working till the question had been put before Darius and an answer had come by letter about it.

⁶This is a copy of the letter which Tattenai, the ruler of the land across the river, and Shethar-bozenai and his friends the Apharsachites, living across the river, sent to Darius the king:

⁷They sent him a letter saying, To Darius the king, all peace:

⁸This is to give the king word that we went into the land of Judah, to the house of the great God, which is made of great stones, and has its walls supported with wood, and the work is going on with industry, and they are doing it well.

⁹Then we said to the men responsible, who gave you authority for the building of this house and these walls?

¹⁰And we made request for their names, so that we might send you word, and give you the names of the men at the head of them.

¹¹And they made answer to us, saying, We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are building the house which was put up in times long past and was designed and made complete by a great king of Israel.

¹²But when the God of heaven was moved to wrath by our fathers, he gave them up into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the Chaldaean, who sent destruction on this house and took the people away into Babylon.

¹³But in the first year of Cyrus, king of Babylon, Cyrus the king gave an order for the building of this house of God;

¹⁴And the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the Temple which was in Jerusalem, and put into the house of his god in Babylon, these Cyrus the king took from the house of his god in Babylon, and gave to one named Sheshbazzar, whom he had made ruler;

¹⁵And he said to him, Go, take these vessels, and put them in the Temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be put up again in its place.

¹⁶Then this same Sheshbazzar came and put the house of God in Jerusalem on its bases: and from that time till now the building has been going on, but it is still not complete.

¹⁷So now, if it seems good to the king, let search be made in the king's store-house at Babylon, to see if it is true that an order was given by Cyrus the king for the building of this house of God at Jerusalem, and let the king send us word of his pleasure in connection with this business.

Ezra 6

¹Then Darius the king gave an order and a search was made in the house of the records, where the things of value were stored up in Babylon.

²And at Achmetha, in the great house of the king in the land of Media, they came across a roll, in which this statement was put on record:

³In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king made an order: In connection with the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be put up, the place where they make offerings, and let the earth for the bases be put in place; let it be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide;

⁴With three lines of great stones and one line of new wood supports; and let the necessary money be given out of the king's store-house;

⁵And let the gold and silver vessels from the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the Temple at Jerusalem to Babylon, be given back and taken again to the Temple at Jerusalem, every one in its place, and put them in the house of God.

⁶So now, Tattenai, ruler of the land across the river, and Shethar-bozenai and your people the Apharsachites across the river, keep far from that place:

⁷Let the work of this house of God go on; let the ruler of the Jews and their responsible men put up this house of God in its place.

⁸Further, I give orders as to what you are to do for the responsible men of the Jews in connection with the building of this house of God: that from the king's wealth, that is, from the taxes got together in the land over the river, the money needed is to be given to these men readily, so that their work may not be stopped.

⁹And whatever they have need of, young oxen and sheep and lambs, for burned offerings to the God of heaven, grain, salt, wine, and oil, whatever the priests in Jerusalem say is necessary, is to be given to them day by day regularly:

¹⁰So that they may make offerings of a sweet smell to the God of heaven, with prayers for the life of the king and of his sons.

¹¹And I have given orders that if anyone makes any change in this word, one of the supports is to be pulled out of his house, and he is to be lifted up and fixed to it; and his house is to be made waste for this;

¹²And may the God who has made it a resting-place for his name send destruction on all kings and peoples whose hands are outstretched to make any change in this or to do damage to this house of God at Jerusalem. I, Darius, have given this order, let it be done with all care.

¹³Then Tattenai, the ruler across the river, and Shethar-bozenai and their people, because of the order given by King Darius, did as he had said with all care.

¹⁴And the responsible men of the Jews went on with their building, and did well, helped by the teaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, the son of Iddo. They went on building till it was complete, in keeping with the word of the God of Israel, and the orders given by Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes, king of Persia.

¹⁵And the building of this house was complete on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the rule of Darius the king.

¹⁶And the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of those who had come back, kept the feast of the opening of this house of God with joy.

¹⁷And they gave as offerings at the opening of this house of God a hundred oxen, two hundred sheep, four hundred lambs; and for a sin-offering for all Israel, twelve he-goats, being the number of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁸And they put the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their order, for the worship of God at Jerusalem; as it is recorded in the book of Moses.

¹⁹And the children of Israel who had come back kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.

²⁰For the priests and the Levites had made themselves clean together; they were all clean: and they put the Passover lamb to death for all those who had come back, and for their brothers the priests and for themselves.

²¹And the children of Israel, who had come back, and all those who were joined to them, after separating themselves from the evil ways of the people of the land to become the servants of the Lord, the God of Israel, took food together,

²²And kept the feast of unleavened bread for seven days with joy: for the Lord had made them full of joy, by turning the heart of the king of Assyria to them to give them help in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.