Cyrus Helps the Exiles to Return
1In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:
2“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
“ ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. 3Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. 4And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’ ”
5Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. 6All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings.
7Moreover, King Cyrus brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god.1:7 Or gods 8Cyrus king of Persia had them brought by Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.
9This was the inventory:
11In all, there were 5,400 articles of gold and of silver. Sheshbazzar brought all these along with the exiles when they came up from Babylon to Jerusalem.
塞魯士下令猶太人回國
1波斯王塞魯士元年，耶和華為應驗祂藉耶利米所說的話，就感動波斯王塞魯士，使他下詔通告全國：
2「波斯王塞魯士如此說，『天上的上帝耶和華已把天下萬國都賜給我，祂委派我在猶大的耶路撒冷為祂建造殿宇。 3你們當中凡屬耶和華的子民，都可以去猶大的耶路撒冷，為住在耶路撒冷的以色列的上帝耶和華建殿，願上帝與他們同在！ 4所有餘民無論寄居在哪裡，當地的人都要用金銀、財物和牲畜幫助他們，還要為耶路撒冷的上帝之殿自願獻上禮物。』」
5於是，猶大和便雅憫的族長、祭司和利未人等所有被上帝感動的人，都準備上耶路撒冷重建耶和華的殿。 6他們周圍的人除了獻上自願獻的禮物外，還拿出銀器、金子、財物、牲畜和珍寶來支持他們。 7巴比倫王尼布甲尼撒曾從耶路撒冷耶和華的殿裡帶回器皿，放在自己的神廟裡。波斯王塞魯士將這些器皿取出來， 8派財政大臣米提利達如數交給猶大的首領設巴薩： 9三十個金盤、一千個銀盤、二十九把刀、 10三十個金碗、四百一十個次等銀碗及一千件其他器皿， 11共有五千四百件金銀器皿。被擄者從巴比倫上耶路撒冷時，設巴薩把這些器皿一併帶去。
