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:

And the king Cyrus brought forth the vessels of the house of Jehovah, which Nebuchadnezzar brought forth from Jerusalem; and he will give them into the house of his God.

These are the people of the province who were going up, from the captives of the exile whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had forced into exile in Babylon. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own city.

they gave after their ability into the treasury of the work sixty-one thousand darics of gold, and five thousand minas of silver, and one hundred priests' garments.

So the priests, the Levites, some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants settled in their [own] cities, and all Israel [gradually settled] into their cities.

Now in the second year of their coming into the house of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, the work was taken in hand by Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all those who had come from the land where they were prisoners to Jerusalem: and they made the Levites, of twenty years old and over, responsible for overseeing the work of the house of the Lord.

And the rest of the nations that the great and honored Asnapper carried into exile, and he caused them to dwell in the cities of Shomeron, and the rest beyond the river, and thus.

Be it known unto the king, that the Jews which are come up from thee to us unto Ierusalem, into that seditious and wicked city, build the same? And make up the walls of it? And bring it out of the foundation?

Be it known to the king that we went into the province of Judah, to the house of the great God, which is being built with great stones, and timber is laid in the walls, and this work is being carried on with diligence, and prospers in their hand.

But because our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to wrath, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and deported the people to Babylon.

And the vessels also of gold and silver of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that was at Jerusalem and brought into the temple of Babylon, those did king Cyrus take out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered to one Sheshbazzar by name, whom he had appointed governor.

And he said to him, Take these vessels, go, carry them into the temple that is at Jerusalem, and let the house of God be built in its place.

The gold and silver articles of God’s house that Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and carried to Babylon must also be returned. They are to be brought to the temple in Jerusalem where they belong and put into the house of God.

I also issue a decree concerning any man who interferes with this directive:

Let a beam be torn from his house and raised up; he will be impaled on it, and his house will be made into a garbage dump because of this offense.

For, on the first of the first month, was a beginning made of coming up from Babylon, - and, on the first of the fifth month, entered he into Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.

Now this is a copy of the letter which King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra, the priest and the scribe, who put into writing the words of the orders of the Lord, and of his rules for Israel:

Blessed be Yahweh, God of our fathers, - who hath put the like of this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of Yahweh, which is in Jerusalem;

And I gathered them together, unto the river that cometh into Ahava, and we encamped there three days, - and I informed myself among the people and the priests, and, of the sons of Levi, found I none there.

And I sent them forth unto Iddo the chief, at the place Casiphia, - and I put into their mouth words, to speak unto Iddo and his brethren the Nethinim, at the place Casiphia, to bring unto us attendants for the house of our God.

Thus I weighed into their hands 650 talents of silver, and silver utensils worth 100 talents, and 100 gold talents,

So the priests and the Levites took the weight of silver and gold and the vessels, to take them to Jerusalem into the house of our God.

On the fourth day the silver and the gold and the utensils were weighed out in the house of our God into the hand of Meremoth the son of Uriah the priest, and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas; and with them were the Levites, Jozabad the son of Jeshua and Noadiah the son of Binnui.

Also the [former] exiles who had come from the captivity offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel: 12 bulls for all Israel, 96 rams, 77 lambs, and 12 male goats for a sin offering. All this was a burnt offering to the Lord.

Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt, and on account of our iniquities we, our kings and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity and to plunder and to open shame, as it is this day.

Which you gave to your servants the prophets, saying, The land into which you are going, to take it for a heritage, is an unclean land, because of the evil lives of the peoples of the land and their disgusting ways, which have made the land unclean from end to end.

Then Ezra rose from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib. Although he went there, he did not eat bread nor drink water, for he was mourning over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.

And they cause a voice to pass over into Judah and Jerusalem, to all sons of the removal, to be gathered to Jerusalem,

But the Sons of the Exile, did thus, and Ezra the priest separated to himself certain men - ancestral heads by their ancestral houses, and all of them by name, - and they took their seats on the first day of the tenth month to search into the matter;