Ezra 1:2

1:2 “Thus says King Cyrus of Persia:

“‘The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has instructed me to build a temple ¹  for him in Jerusalem, ²  which is in Judah.

Ezra 1:5

The Exiles Prepare to Return to Jerusalem

1:5 Then the leaders ³  of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and the Levites – all those whose mind God had stirred – got ready ⁴  to go up in order to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. ⁵ 

Ezra 3:12

3:12 Many of the priests, the Levites, and the leaders ⁶  – older people who had seen with their own eyes the former temple while it was still established ⁷  – were weeping loudly, ⁸  and many others raised their voice in a joyous shout.

Ezra 4:3

4:3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the leaders of Israel said to them, “You have no right ⁹  to help us build the temple of our God. We will build it by ourselves for the Lord God of Israel, just as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.”

Ezra 7:6

7:6 This Ezra is the one who came up from Babylon. He was a scribe who was skilled in the law of Moses which the Lord God of Israel had given. The king supplied him with everything he requested, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him.

Ezra 10:14

10:14 Let our leaders take steps ¹⁰  on behalf of all the assembly. Let all those in our towns who have married foreign women come at an appointed time, and with them the elders of each town and its judges, until the hot anger of our God is turned away from us in this matter.”

¹ tn Heb “house.” The Hebrew noun בַּיִת (bayit, “house”) is often used in reference to the temple of Yahweh (BDB 108 s.v. 1.a). This is also frequent elsewhere in Ezra and Nehemiah (e.g., Ezra 1:3, 4, 5, 7; 2:68; 3:8, 9, 11, 12; 4:3; 6:22; 7:27; 8:17, 25, 29, 30, 33, 36; 9:9; 10:1, 6, 9).

² map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

³ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”

⁴ tn Heb “arose.”

⁵ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁵ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”

⁶ sn The temple had been destroyed some fifty years earlier by the Babylonians in 586 b.c.

⁷ tn Heb “with a great voice.”

⁷ tn Heb “not to you and to us.”

⁹ tn Heb “stand.”