1In order to fulfill the Lord's prophecy given through Jeremiah, the Lord encouraged Cyrus, king of Persia, to issue a proclamation throughout his kingdom and also to put it in writing, saying,

2“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, who has given to me all the kingdoms of the earth, has given me the responsibility to build a Temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah.

3Anyone among you who belongs to his people can go to Jerusalem in Judah to rebuild this Temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, who lives in Jerusalem. May your God be with you.

4Wherever survivors are currently living, let them be helped by the people of that region with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, together with a voluntary donation for God's Temple in Jerusalem.’” ⁰

5Then God encouraged the family leaders of Judah and Benjamin, as well as the priests and Levites to go and rebuild the Lord's Temple in Jerusalem.

6All their neighbors supported them with gifts of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with other valuable items, in addition to all their voluntary donations.

7King Cyrus also retrieved the items belonging to the Lord's Temple that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and placed in the temple of his god.

8Cyrus had Mithredath the treasurer retrieve them, who counted them and gave them to Sheshbazzar, ¹the leader of Judah.

9This was the list: 30 gold basins, 1,000 silver basins, 29 silver silverware,

1030 gold bowls, 410 matching silver bowls, and 1,000 other items.

11In total there were 5,400 gold and silver items. When the exiles left Babylon to go to Jerusalem Sheshbazzar took all these along with them.