The Book of Ezra, chapters 1 - 6
1 NOW IN THE FIRST YEAR OF CYRUS king of Persia,
so that the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah might be
fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the heart of Cyrus king of Persia;
and he issued a proclamation throughout the kingdom, both by word of
mouth and in writing, to this effect:
This is the word of Cyrus of Persia: The LORD the God of heaven
has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he himself has charged
me to build him a house at Jerusalem in Judah. To every man of his
people now among you I say, God be with him, and let him go up to
Jerusalem in Judah, and rebuild the house of the LORD the God of
Israel, the God whose city is Jerusalem. And every remaining Jew,
wherever he may be living, may claim aid from his neighbours in that
place, silver and gold, goods and cattle, in addition to the voluntary
offerings for the house of God in Jerusalem.
Thereupon the heads of families of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests
and the Levites, answered the summons, all whom God had moved to go
up to rebuild the house of the LORD in Jerusalem. Their neighbours all
assisted them with gifts of every kind, silver and gold, goods and cattle
and valuable gifts in abundance, in addition to any voluntary service.
Moreover, Cyrus king of Persia produced the vessels of the house of the
LORD which Nebuchadnezzar had removed from Jerusalem and placed in
the temple of his god; and he handed them over into the charge of Mith-
redath the treasurer, who made an inventory of them for Sheshbazzar the
ruler of Judah. This was the list: thirty gold basins, a thousand silver basins,
twenty-nine vessels of various kinds, thirty golden bowls, four hundred
and ten silver bowls of various types, and a thousand other vessels. The
vessels of gold and silver amounted in all to five thousand four hundred;
and Sheshbazzar took them all up to Jerusalem, when the exiles were
brought back from Babylon.
2 Of the captives whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into
exile in Babylon, these were the people of the province who returned to
Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own city, led by Zerubbabel, Jeshua,
Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum
and Baanah.
The roll of the men of the people of Israel: the family of Parosh, two
thousand one hundred and seventy-two; the family of Shephataiah, three
hundred and seventy-two; the family of Arah, seven hundred and seventy-
five; the family of Pahath-moab, namely the families of Jeshua and Joab,
two thousand eight hundred and twelve; the family of Elam, one thousand
two hundred and fifty-four; the family of Zattu, nine hundred and forty-
five; the family of Zaccai, seven hundred and sixty; the family of Bani, six
hundred and forty-two; the family of Bebai, six hundred and twenty-three;
the family of Azgad, one thousand two hundred and twenty-two; the
family of Adonikam, six hundred and sixty-six; the family of Bigvai, two
thousand and fifty-six; the family of Adin, four hundred ad fifty-four;
the family of Ater, namely that of Hezekiah, ninety-eight; the family of
Bezai, three hundred and twenty-three; the family of Jorah, one hundred
and twelve; the family of Hashum, two hundred and twenty-three; the
family of Gibbar, ninety-five. The men of Bethlehem, one hundred and
twenty-three; the men of Netophah, fifty-six; the men of Anathoth, one
hundred and twenty-eight; the men of Beth-azmoth, forty-two; the men
of Kiriath-jearim, Kephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred and forty-
three; the men of Ramah and Geba, six hundred and twenty-one; the
men of Michmas, one hundred and twenty-two; the men of Bethel and Ai,
two hundred and twenty-three; the men of Nebo, fifty-two; the men of
Magbish, one hundred and fifty-six; the men of the other Elam, one
thousand two hundred and fifty-four; the men of Harim, three hundred
and twenty; the men of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred and twenty-
five; the men of Jericho, three hundred and forty-five; the men of Senaah,
three thousand six hundred and thirty.
Priests: the family of Jedaiah, of the line of Jeshua, nine hundred and
seventy-three; the family of Immer, one thousand and fifty-two; the
family of Pashhur, one thousand two hundred and forty-seven; the family
of Harim, one thousand and seventeen.
Levites: the families of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the line of Hodaviah,
seventy-four. Singers: the family of Asaph, one hundred and twenty-eight.
The guild of door-keepers: the family of Shallum, the family of Ater, the
family of Talmon, the family of Akkub, the family of Hatita, and the family
of Shobai, one hundred ad thirty-nine in all.
Temple-servitors: the family of Ziha, the family of Hasupha, the family
of Tabbath, the family of Keros, the family of Siaha, the family of Padon,
the faimily of Labanah, the family of Hagabah, the family of Akkub, the
family of Hagab, the family of Shamlai, the family of Hanan, the family
of Giddel, the family of Gahar, the family of Reaiah, the family of Rezin,
the family of Nekoda, the family of Gazzam, the family of Uzza, the family
of Paseah, the family of Besai, the family of Asnah, the family of the
Meunim, the family of Nephusim, the family of Bakbuk, the family of
Mehida, the family of Harsha, the family of Barkos, the family of Sisera,
the family of Temah, the family of Neziah, and the family of Hatipha.
Descendants of Solomon's servants: the family of Sotai, the family of
Hassophereth, the family of Peruda, the family of Jaalah, the family of
Darkon, the family of Giddel, the family of Shephatiah, the family of Hattil,
the family of Pochereth-hazzebaim, the family of Ami.
The temple-servitors and the descendants of Solomon's servants
amounted to three hundred and ninety-two in all.
The following were those who returned from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha,
Kerub, Addan, and Immer, but could not establish their father's family
nor whether by descent they belonged to Israel: the family of Delaiah, the
family of Tobiah, and the family of Nekoda, six hundred and fifty-two.
Also of the priests: the family of Hobaiah, the family of Hakkoz, and the
family of Barzillai who had married a daughter of Barzillai the Gileadite
and went by his name. These searched for their names among those
enrolled in the genealogies, but they could not be found; they were dis-
qualified for the priesthood as unclean, and the governor forbade them to
partake of the most sacred food until there should be a priest able to consult
the Urim and the Thummim.
The whole assembled people numbered forty-two thousand three
hundred and sixty, apart from their slaves, male and female, of whom there
were seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven; and they had two
hundred singers, men and women. Their horses numbered seven hundred
and thirty-six, their mules two hundred and forty-five, their camels four
hundred and thirty-five, and their asses six thousand seven hundred and
twenty.
When they came to the house of the LORD in Jerusalem, some of the
heads of families volunteered to rebuild the house of God on its original
site. According to their resources they gave for the fabric fund a total of
sixty-one thousand drachmas of gold, five thousand minas of silver, and
one hundred priestly robes.
The priests, the Levites, and some of the people lived in Jerusalem and
its suburbs; the singers, the door-keepers, and temple-servitors, and all
other Israelites, lived in their own towns.
3 WHEN THE SEVENTH MONTH CAME, the Israelites now being settled
in their towns, the people assembled as one man in Jerusalem. Then
Jeshua son of Jozadak and his fellow-priests, and Zerubbabel son of
Shealtiel and his kinsmen, set to work to build the altar of the God of Israel,
in order to offer upon it whole-offerings as prescribed in the law of Moses
the man of God. They put the altar in place first, because they lived in
fear of the foreign population; and they offered upon it whole-offerings
to the LORD, both morning and evening offerings. They kept the pilgrim-
feast of the Tabernacles as ordained, and offered whole-offerings every day
in the number prescribed for each day, and, in addition to these, the regular
whole-offerings and the offerings for sabbaths, for new moons and for all
the sacred seasons appointed by the LORD, and all voluntary offerings
brought to the LORD. The offering of whole-offerings began from the first
day of the seventh moth, although the foundation ofthe temple of the
LORD had not yet been laid. They gave money for the masons and car-
penters, and food and drink and oil for the Sidonians and the Tyrians to
fetch cedar-wood from the Lebanon to the roadstead at Joppa, by license
from Cyrus king of Persia.
In the second year after their return to the house of God in Jerusalem,
and in the second month, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of
Jozakad started work aided by their fellow-Israelites, the priests and
the Levites and all who had returned from captivity to Jerusalem. They
appointed Levites from the age of twenty years and upwards to supervise
the work of the house of the LORD. Jeshua with his sons and his kinsmen,
Kadmiel, Binnui, and Hodaviah, together assumed control of those
responsible for the work on the house of God.
When the builders had laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD,
the priests in their robes took their places with their trumpets, and the
Levites, the sons of Asaph, with their cymbals, to praise the LORD in the
manner prescribed by David king of Israel; and they chanted praises and
thanksgiving to the LORD, singing, 'It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
for his love towards Israel endures for ever.' All the people raised a great
shout of praise to the LORD because the foundation of the house of the
LORD had been laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of
families, who were old enough to have seen the former house, wept and
wailed aloud when they saw the foundation of this house laid, while many
others shouted for joy at the top of their voice. The people could not dis-
tinguish the sound of the shout of joy from that of thee weeping and wailing,
so great was the shout which the people were raising, and the sound could
be heard a long way off.
4 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles
were building a temple to the LORD the God of Israel, they approached
Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the heads of families and said to them, 'Let
us join you in building, for like you we seek your God, and we ave been
sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who
brought us here.' But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of
families in Israel said to them, 'The house which we are building for our
God is no concern of yours. We alone will build it for the LORD the God of
Israel, as his majesty Cyrus king of Persia commanded us.'
Then the people of the land caused the Jews to lose heart and made them
afraid to continue building; and in order to defeat their purpose they
bribed officials at court to act against them. This continued throughout the
reign of Cyrus and into the reign of Darius king of Persia.
At the beginning of the reign of Ahasuerus, the people of the land
brought a charge in writing against the inhabitants of Judah and Jersalem.
And in the days of Artaxerxes king of Persia, with the agreement of
Mithredath, Tabeel and all his colleagues wrote to him; the letter was
written in Aramaic and read aloud in Aramaic.
Rehum the high commissioner and Shimshai the secretary wrote a
letter to King Artaxerxes concerning Jerusalem in the following terms:
From Rehum the high commissioner, Shimshai the secretary, and all
their colleagues, the judges, the commissioners, the overseers, and chief
officers, the men of Erech and Babylon, and the Elamites in Susa, and the
other peoples whom the great and renowned Asnappar deported and
settled in the city of Samaria and in the rest of the province of Beyond-
Euphrates.
Here follows the text of their letter:
To King Artaxerxes from his servants, the men of the province of
Beyond-Euphrates:
Be it known to Your Majesty that the Jews who left you and came to
these parts have reached Jerusalem and are rebuilding that wicked and
rebellious city; they have surveyed the foundations and are completing
the walls. Be it known to Your Majesty that, if their city is rebuilt and
the walls are completed, they will pay neither general levy, nor poll-tax,
nor land-tax, and in the end they will harm the monarchy. Now,
because we eat the king's salt and it is not right that we should witness
the king's dishonour, therefore we have sent to inform Your Majesty,
in order that search may be made in the annals of your predecessors. You
will discover by searching through the annals that this has been a rebel-
lious city, harmful to the monarchy and its provinces, and that sedition
has long been rife within its walls. That is why the city was laid waste.
We submit to Your Majesty that, if it is rebuilt and its walls are com-
pleted, the result is that you will have no more footing in the pro-
vince of Beyond-Euphrates.
The king sent this answer:
To Rehum the high commissioner, Shimshai the secretary, and all
your colleagues resident in Samaria and the rest of the province of
Beyond-Euphrates, greeting. The letter which you sent to me has now
bee read clearly in my presence. I have given orders and search has
been made, and it has been found that the city in question has a long
history of revolt against the monarchy, and that rebellion and sedition
have been rife in it. Powerful kings have ruled in Jerusalem, exercising
authority over the whole province of Beyond-Euphrates, and general
levy, poll-tax, and land tax have been paid to them. Therefore, issue
orders that these men must desist. This city is not to be rebuilt until a
decree to that effect is issued by me. See that you do not neglect your
duty in this matter, lest more damage and harm be done to the monarchy.
When the text of the letter from King Artaxerxes was read before Rehum
the high commissioner, Shimshai the secretary, and their colleagues, they
hurried to Jerusalem an forcibly compelled the Jews to stop work. From
then onwards the work on the house of God in Jerusalem stopped; and it
remained at a standstill till the second year of the reign of Darius king of
Persia.
5 But the prophets Haggai and Zechariah grandson of Iddo upbraided
the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem, prophesying in the name of the God of
Israel. Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak at
once began to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem, and the prophets of
God were with them and supported them. Tattenai, governor of the
province of Beyond-Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and their colleagues
promptly came to them and said, 'Who issued a decree permitting you to
rebuild this house and complete its furnishings?' They also asked them
for the names of the men engaged in the building. But the elders of the
Jews were under God's watchful eye, and they were prevented from
continuing the work, until such time as a report should reach Darius and
a royal letter should be received in answer.
Here follows the text of the letter sent by Tattenai, governor of the
province of Beyond-Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and his colleagues, the
inspectors in the province of Beyond-Euphrates, to king Darius. This is
the written report that they sent:
To King Darius, all greetings. Be it known to Your Majesty that we
went to the province of Judah and found the house of the great God
being rebuilt by the Jewish elders, with massive stones and timbers
laid in the walls. The work was being done thoroughly and was making
good progress under their direction. We asked these elders who had
issued a decree for the rebuilding of this house and the completion of
the furnishings. We also asked them for their names, so that we might
make a list of the leaders for your information. This was their reply: 'We
are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding
the house originally built many years ago; a great king of Israel built it
and completed it. But because our forefathers provoked the anger of the
God of heaven, he put them into the power of Nebuchadnezzar the
Chaldaean king of Babylon, who pulled down the house and carried
the people captive to Babylon. However, Cyrus, king of Babylon in the
first year of his reign issued a decree that this house of God should be
rebuilt. Moreover, there were gold and silver vessels of the house of God,
which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem and put
in the temple in Babylon; and these King Cyrus took out of the temple
in Babylon. He gave them to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he had
appointed governor, and said to him, "Take these vessels; go and restore
them to the temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God there be
rebuilt on its original site." Then this Sheshbazzar came and laid the
foundation of the house of God in Jerusalem; and from that time until
now the rebuilding has continued, but it is not yet finished.' Now, there-
fore, if it please Your Majesty, let search be made in the royal archives
in Babylon, to discover whether a decree was issued by King Cyrus for
the rebuilding of this house of God in Jerusalem. Then let the king send
us his wishes in the matter.
6 Then King Darius issued an order, and search was made in the archives
where the treasures were deposited in Babylon. But it was in Ecbatana,
in the royal residence in the province of Media, that a scroll was found, on
which was written the following memorandum:
In the first year of King Cyrus, the king issued this decree concerning
the house of God in Jerusalem: Let the house be rebuilt as a place where
sacrifices are offered and fire-offerings brought. Its height shall be sixty
cubits and its breadth sixty cubits, with three courses of massive stones
and one course of timber, the cost to be defrayed from the royal
treasury. Also the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which
Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple in Jerusalem and brought to
Babylon, shall be restored; they shall all be taken back to the temple in
Jerusalem, and restored each to its place in the house of God.
Then King Darius issued this order:
Now, Tattenai, governor of the province of Beyond-Euphrates,
Shethar-bozenai, and your colleagues, the inspectors in the province of
Beyond-Euphrates, you are to keep away from the place, and to leave
the governor of the Jews and their elders free to rebuild the house of
God; let them rebuild it on its original site. I also issue an order pre-
scribing what you are to do for the elders of the Jews, so that the said
house of God may be rebuilt. Their expenses are to be defrayed in full
from the royal funds accruing from the taxes of the province of Beyond-
Euphrates, so that the works may not be brought to a standstill. And let
them have daily without fail whatever they want, young bulls, rams, or
lambs as whole-offerings for the God of heaven, or wheat, salt, wine, or
oil, as the priests in Jerusalem demand, so that they may offer soothing
sacrifices to the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king and his
sons. Furthermore, I decree that, if any man tampers with this edict,
a beam shall be puled out of his house and he shall be fastened erect to
it and flogged; and, in addition, his house shall be forfeit. And may the
God who made that place a dwelling for his Name overthrow any king
or people that shall presume to tamper with this edict or to destroy this
house of God in Jerusalem. I Darius have issued a decree; it is to be
carried out to the letter.
Then Tattenai, governor of the province of Beyond-Euphrates, Shethar-
bozenai, and their colleagues carried out to the letter the instructions which
King Darius had sent them, and the elders of the Jews went on with the
rebuilding. As a result of the prophecies of Haggai the prophet and
Zechariah grandson of Iddo they had good success and finished the re-
building as commanded by the God of Israel and according to the decrees
of Cyrus and Darius; and the house was completed on the twenty-third
day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of King Darius.
Then the people of Israel, the priests and the Levites and all the other
exiles who had returned , celebrated the dedication of the house of God
with great rejoicing. For its dedication they offered one hundred bulls,
two hundred rams, and four hundred lambs, and as a sin-offering for all
Israel twelve he-goats, corresponding to the number of the tribes of Israel.
And they re-established the priests in their groups and the Levites in their
divisions for the service of God in Jerusalem, as prescribed in the book of
Moses.
On the fourteenth day of the first month the exiles who had returned
kept the Passover. The priests and the Levites, one and all, had purified
themselves; all of them were ritually clean, and they killed the passover
lamb for all the exiles who had returned, for their fellow-priests and for
themselves. It was eaten by the Israelites who had come back from exile
and by all who had separated themselves from the peoples of the land and
their uncleanness and sought the LORD the God of Israel. And they kept
the pilgrim-feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with rejoicing; for
the LORD had given them cause for joy by changing the disposition of the
king of Assyria towards them, so that he encouraged them in the work of
the house of God, the God of Israel.
The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970
Posted Jul 25, 2019, 6:31 PM UTC
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