Holman Christian Standard Bible (141 page)

Ezra

Ezra

The Decree of Cyrus

1
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, the word of the
Lord
spoken through Jeremiah was fulfilled. The
Lord
put it into the mind of King Cyrus to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom and to put it in writing:

Return from Exile

5
 So the family leaders of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and Levites — everyone God had motivated — prepared to go up and rebuild the
Lord
's house in Jerusalem.
6
 All their neighbors supported them with silver articles, gold, goods, livestock, and valuables, in addition to all that was given as a freewill offering.
7
 King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the
Lord
's house that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and had placed in the house of his gods. 
8
 King Cyrus of Persia had them brought out under the supervision of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. 
9
 This was the inventory:

11
 The gold and silver articles totaled 5,400. Sheshbazzar brought all of them when the exiles went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Ezra

The Exiles Who Returned

2
These now are the people of the province who came from those captive exiles King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had deported to Babylon. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town.
2
 They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah.

The number of the Israelite men included: 

36
 The priests included:

40
 The Levites included:

41
 The singers included:

42
 The gatekeepers' descendants included:

43
 The temple servants included:

55
 The descendants of Solomon's servants included:

59
 The following are those who came from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer but were unable to prove that their families and ancestry were Israelite:

61
 and from the descendants of the priests: the descendants of Hobaiah, the descendants of Hakkoz, the descendants of Barzillai — who had taken a wife from the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite and was called by their name.
62
 These searched for their entries in the genealogical records, but they could not be found, so they were disqualified from the priesthood.
63
 The governor ordered them not to eat the most holy things until there was a priest who could consult the
•Urim
and Thummim. 

Gifts for the Work

68
 After they arrived at the
Lord
's house in Jerusalem, some of the family leaders gave freewill offerings for the house of God in order to have it rebuilt on its original site.
69
 Based on what they could give, they gave 61,000 gold coins, 6,250 pounds of silver, and 100 priestly garments to the treasury for the project.
70
 The priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, temple servants, and some of the people settled in their towns, and the rest of Israel settled in their towns. 

Ezra

Sacrifice Restored

3
By the seventh month, the Israelites had settled in their towns, and the people gathered together in Jerusalem. 
2
 Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers the priests along with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his brothers began to build the altar of Israel's God in order to offer
•burnt
offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God. 
3
 They set up the altar on its foundation and offered burnt offerings for the morning and evening on it to the
Lord
even though they feared the surrounding peoples. 
4
 They celebrated the Festival of Booths as prescribed, and offered burnt offerings each day, based on the number specified by ordinance for each festival day. 
5
 After that, they offered the regular burnt offering and the offerings for the beginning of each month and for all the
Lord
's appointed holy occasions, as well as the freewill offerings brought to the
Lord
.

6
 On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the
Lord
, even though the foundation of the
Lord
's temple had not yet been laid.
7
 They gave money to the stonecutters and artisans, and gave food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so they could bring cedar wood from Lebanon to Joppa by sea, according to the authorization given them by King Cyrus of Persia. 

Rebuilding the Temple

8
 In the second month of the second year after they arrived at God's house in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brothers, including the priests, the Levites, and all who had returned to Jerusalem from the captivity, began to build. They appointed the Levites who were 20 years old or more to supervise the work on the
Lord
's house. 
9
 Jeshua with his sons and brothers, Kadmiel with his sons, and the sons of Judah and of Henadad, with their sons and brothers, the Levites, joined together to supervise those working on the house of God.

Temple Foundation Completed

10
 When the builders had laid the foundation of the
Lord
's temple, the priests, dressed in their robes and holding trumpets, and the Levites descended from
•Asaph
, holding cymbals, took their positions to praise the
Lord
, as King David of Israel had instructed. 
11
 They sang with praise and thanksgiving to the
Lord
: “For He is good; His faithful love to Israel endures forever.” Then all the people gave a great shout of praise to the
Lord
because the foundation of the
Lord
's house had been laid. 

12
 But many of the older priests, Levites, and family leaders, who had seen the first temple, wept loudly when they saw the foundation of this house, but many others shouted joyfully.
13
 The people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shouting from that of the weeping, because the people were shouting so loudly. And the sound was heard far away.

Ezra

Opposition to Rebuilding the Temple

4
When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple for
•Yahweh
, the God of Israel,
2
 they approached Zerubbabel and the leaders of the families and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we also worship your God and have been sacrificing to Him since the time King Esar-haddon of Assyria brought us here.” 

3
 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the other leaders of Israel's families answered them, “You may have no part with us in building a house for our God, since we alone must build it for Yahweh, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.” 
4
 Then the people who were already in the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build.
5
 They also bribed officials to act against them to frustrate their plans throughout the reign of King Cyrus of Persia and until the reign of King Darius of Persia.