Cyrus Sends the Jews Home

In the first year of the reign of Cyrus, which was the seventieth from the day our people were moved out of their own land into Babylon, God took pity on the captivity and misery of these poor people, as he had foretold to them through Jeremiah the prophet before the city was destroyed: that after they had served Nebuchadnezzar and his descendants and had endured that servitude for seventy years, he would bring them back again to the land of their fathers, and they would build their temple and enjoy their ancient prosperity. And God granted them these things. He stirred up the mind of Cyrus and made him write this throughout all Asia: “Thus says Cyrus the king: Since the Most High God has appointed me king of the inhabited earth, I believe that he is the God whom the nation of the Israelites worships; for indeed he foretold my name through the prophets, and that I would build his temple at Jerusalem, in the country of Judea.” [a]

Cyrus knew this from reading the book of his prophecies that Isaiah had left behind two hundred and ten years before; for this prophet said that God had spoken to him thus in a secret vision: “My will is that Cyrus, whom I have appointed king over many great nations, send my people back to their own land and build my temple.” Isaiah foretold this a hundred and forty years before the temple was demolished. So when Cyrus read it, he marveled at the divine power, and an eager desire and ambition took hold of him to fulfill what was written. He called for the most eminent Jews in Babylon and told them that he gave them leave to go back to their own country and to rebuild their city Jerusalem and the temple of God. He would help them, he said, and he would write to the rulers and governors in the neighborhood of their country of Judea to contribute gold and silver for the building of the temple, and animals for their sacrifices besides. [c]

When Cyrus had said this to the Israelites, the rulers of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with the Levites and priests, hurried to Jerusalem; yet many of them stayed in Babylon, not wanting to leave their possessions. When they arrived, all the king’s friends helped them, bringing in for the building of the temple some gold, some silver, and some a great many cattle and horses. So they paid their vows to God and offered the sacrifices that had been customary of old; as though their city were being rebuilt and the ancient practices of their worship revived. Cyrus also sent back to them the vessels of God that King Nebuchadnezzar had plundered from the temple and carried to Babylon. He entrusted them to Mithredath the treasurer to be sent away, with orders to give them to Sheshbazzar, who was to keep them until the temple was built and, when it was finished, to deliver them to the priests and the rulers of the people, so that they could be restored to the temple. Cyrus also sent a letter to the governors in Syria, the contents of which follow: [e]

“King Cyrus to Sisinnes and Sathrabouzanes, greeting. I have given leave to as many of the Jews living in my country as wish to return to their own country, to rebuild their city, and to build the temple of God at Jerusalem on the same place where it stood before. I have also sent my treasurer Mithredath and Zerubbabel, the governor of the Jews, to lay the foundations of the temple and to build it ninety feet high and as many wide, making three courses of polished stone and one of the wood of the country, and likewise an altar on which to offer sacrifices to God. I also require that the costs of these things be paid out of my revenues. I have also sent the vessels that King Nebuchadnezzar plundered from the temple, and have given them to Mithredath the treasurer and to Zerubbabel the governor of the Jews, to have them carried to Jerusalem and restored to the temple of God. Their number is as follows: fifty wine coolers of gold and four hundred of silver; fifty Thericlean cups of gold and four hundred of silver; fifty basins of gold and five hundred of silver; forty libation bowls of gold and three hundred of silver; thirty bowls of gold and two thousand four hundred of silver; with a thousand other large vessels. I also grant them the allowance that was customary from their forefathers: for livestock, and for wine and oil, two hundred and five thousand five hundred drachmas; and for wheat flour, about thirty-one thousand bushels. And I order that these expenses be paid to them out of the tribute due from Samaria. The priests shall offer these sacrifices according to the laws of Moses in Jerusalem, and when they offer them they shall pray to God for the preservation of the king and of his family, that the kingdom of Persia may continue. And my will is that those who disobey these orders and make them void shall be hung on a cross, and their property brought into the king’s treasury.” Such was the substance of this letter. The number of those who came out of captivity to Jerusalem was forty-two thousand four hundred and sixty-two.