Study Desk

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

This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: "The Lord , the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build Him a house at Jerusalem in Judah.^(d)

Whoever is among His people, may his God be with him, and may he go to Jerusalem in Judah and build the house of the Lord , the God of Israel,^(e) the God who is in Jerusalem.

Let every survivor,^(f) wherever he lives, be assisted by the men of that region with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, along with a freewill offering for the house of God in Jerusalem."

So the family leaders of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and Levites—everyone God had motivated^[b](g)—prepared to go up and rebuild the Lord 's house in Jerusalem.

All their neighbors supported them^[c](h) with silver articles, gold, goods, livestock, and valuables, in addition to all that was given as a freewill offering.

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.⁽ⁱ⁾

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.^(j)

This was the inventory: 30 gold basins, 1,000 silver basins, 29 silver knives,

¹⁰30 gold bowls, 410 various^[d] silver bowls, and 1,000 other articles.

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

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By the seventh month,^(a) the Israelites had settled in their towns, and the people gathered together in Jerusalem.^(b)

Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers the priests along with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel^(c) 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.^(d)

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.^(e)

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.^(f)

After that, they offered the regular burnt offering and the offerings for the beginning of each month^[a](g) and for all the Lord 's appointed holy occasions, as well as the freewill offerings brought to^[b] the Lord .

On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord ,^(h) even though the foundation of the Lord 's temple had not yet been laid.

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,⁽ⁱ⁾ according to the authorization given them by King Cyrus of Persia.^(j)

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,^(k) 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.^(l)

Jeshua with his sons and brothers, Kadmiel with his sons, and the sons of Judah^[c] and of Henadad, with their sons and brothers, the Levites,^(m) joined together to supervise those working on the house of God.

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,⁽ⁿ⁾ holding cymbals, took their positions to praise the Lord , as King David of Israel had instructed.^(o)

They sang with praise and thanksgiving to the Lord : "For He is good; His faithful love to Israel endures forever."^(p) Then all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord because the foundation of the Lord 's house had been laid.^(q)

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,^(r) but many others shouted joyfully.

The people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shouting from that of the^[d] weeping,^(s) because the people were shouting so loudly. And the sound was heard far away.