1In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:
2“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
3Whoever among you belongs to 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; He is the God who is in Jerusalem.
4And let every survivor, 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.’”
5So the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and Levites—everyone whose spirit God had stirred—prepared to go up and rebuild the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.
6And all their neighbors supported them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuables, in addition to all their freewill offerings.
7King Cyrus also brought out the articles belonging to the house of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the temple of his gods.
8Cyrus king of Persia had them brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.
9This was the inventory:
11In all, there were 5,400 gold and silver articles. Sheshbazzar brought all these along when the exiles went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.
Understand This
Ezra 1, explained
What Ezra 1 is saying
In 539 BC, Cyrus of Persia issues an edict permitting the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple, declaring that 'the Lord, the God of heaven' has charged him with this task. He returns the Temple vessels Nebuchadnezzar had plundered. Sheshbazzar, a prince of Judah, leads the first wave of returning exiles, carrying 5,400 articles of gold and silver back to Jerusalem.
The background behind it
Cyrus's edict is consistent with his known policy of restoring conquered peoples' cults—the Cyrus Cylinder confirms this practice, though it doesn't mention the Jews specifically. Sheshbazzar may be identified with Shenazzar of 1 Chronicles 3:18, a son of Jehoiachin. The edict's theological language ('the God of heaven') reflects Persian diplomatic convention accommodating local deities.
Themes running underneath
The chapter establishes that God's sovereignty operates through pagan empires—Cyrus is an unwitting instrument of divine purpose, fulfilling Jeremiah's seventy-year prophecy (Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10). The return of Temple vessels symbolizes continuity between the pre-exilic and post-exilic communities. What Babylon took, Persia returns.
Why it still matters
Cyrus's decree demonstrates that God's restoration plans are not limited to working through the faithful—He can stir the hearts of those who don't even know Him. This broadens expectations about how and through whom divine purposes might be accomplished.
Scripture text: Berean Standard Bible — used by permission, Bible Hub.