Ezra 1:7

1:7 Then King Cyrus brought out the vessels of the Lord’s temple which Nebuchadnezzar had brought from Jerusalem and had displayed ¹  in the temple of his gods.

Ezra 1:11

1:11 All these gold and silver vessels totaled 5,400. ²  Sheshbazzar brought them all along when the captives were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Ezra 5:13-15

5:13 But in the first year of King Cyrus of Babylon, ³  King Cyrus enacted a decree to rebuild this temple of God. 5:14 Even the gold and silver vessels of the temple of God that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem and had brought to the palace ⁴  of Babylon – even those things King Cyrus brought from the palace of Babylon and presented ⁵  to a man by the name of Sheshbazzar whom he had appointed as governor. 5:15 He said to him, “Take these vessels and go deposit them in the temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt in its proper location.” ⁶ 

Ezra 7:9

7:9 On the first day of the first month he had determined to make ⁷  the ascent from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he arrived at Jerusalem, ⁸  for the good hand of his God was on him.

Ezra 7:19

7:19 Deliver to ⁹  the God of Jerusalem the vessels that are given to you for the service of the temple of your God.

¹ tn Heb “and he gave them.”

² sn The total number as given in the MT does not match the numbers given for the various items in v. 9. It is not clear whether the difference is due to error in textual transmission or whether the constituent items mentioned are only a selection from a longer list, in which case the total from that longer list may have been retained. The numbers provided in 1 Esdras come much closer to agreeing with the number in Ezra 1:9-11, but this does not necessarily mean that 1 Esdras has been better preserved here than Ezra. 1 Esdras 2:13-15 (RSV) says, “The number of these was: a thousand gold cups, a thousand silver cups, twenty-nine silver censures, thirty gold bowls, two thousand four hundred and ten silver bowls, and a thousand other vessels. All the vessels were handed over, gold and silver, five thousand four hundred and sixty-nine, and they were carried back by Shesbazzar with the returning exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem.”

³ sn Cyrus was actually a Persian king, but when he conquered Babylon in 539 b.c. he apparently appropriated to himself the additional title “king of Babylon.” The Syriac Peshitta substitutes “Persia” for “Babylon” here, but this is probably a hyper-correction.

⁴ tn Or “temple.”

⁵ tn Aram “they were given.”

⁶ tn Aram “upon its place.”

⁷ tc The translation reads יִסַּד (yissad, “he appointed” [= determined]) rather than the reading יְסֻד (yÿsud, “foundation”) of the MT. (The words “to make” are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.)

⁸ sn Apparently it took the caravan almost four months to make the five hundred mile journey.

⁹ tn Or “before.”