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 6:5

6:5 Furthermore let the gold and silver vessels of the temple of God, which Nebuchadnezzar brought from the temple in Jerusalem and carried to Babylon, be returned and brought to their proper place in the temple in Jerusalem. Let them be deposited in the temple of God.’

Ezra 8:18

8:18 Due to the fact that the good hand of our God was on us, they brought us a skilled man, from the descendants of Mahli the son of Levi son of Israel. This man was Sherebiah, ³  who was accompanied by his sons and brothers, ⁴  18 men,

Ezra 4:2

4:2 they came to Zerubbabel and the leaders ⁵  and said to them, “Let us help you build, ⁶  for like you we seek your God and we have been sacrificing to him ⁷  from the time ⁸  of King Esarhaddon ⁹  of Assyria, who brought us here.” ¹⁰ 

Ezra 5:14

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 ¹¹  of Babylon – even those things King Cyrus brought from the palace of Babylon and presented ¹²  to a man by the name of Sheshbazzar whom he had appointed as governor.

Ezra 1:8

1:8 King Cyrus of Persia entrusted ¹³  them to ¹⁴  Mithredath ¹⁵  the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar ¹⁶  the leader of the Judahite exiles. ¹⁷ 

Ezra 4:10

4:10 and the rest of nations whom the great and noble Ashurbanipal ¹⁸  deported and settled in the cities ¹⁹  of Samaria and other places in Trans-Euphrates. ²⁰ 

Ezra 8:20

8:20 and some of the temple servants that David and his officials had established for the work of the Levites – 220 of them. They were all designated by name.

Ezra 10:10

10:10 Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have behaved in an unfaithful manner by taking foreign wives! This has contributed to the guilt of Israel.

Ezra 3:5

3:5 Afterward they offered the continual burnt offerings and those for the new moons and those for all the holy assemblies of the Lord and all those that were being voluntarily offered to the Lord.

Ezra 7:7

7:7 In the seventh year of King Artaxerxes, Ezra brought ²¹  up to Jerusalem ²²  some of the Israelites and some of the priests, the Levites, the attendants, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants.

Ezra 3:7

Preparations for Rebuilding the Temple

3:7 So they provided money ²³  for the masons and carpenters, and food, beverages, and olive oil for the people of Sidon ²⁴  and Tyre, ²⁵  so that they would bring cedar timber from Lebanon to the seaport ²⁶  at Joppa, in accord with the edict of King Cyrus of Persia.

Ezra 6:3

6:3 In the first year of his reign, ²⁷  King Cyrus gave orders concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem: ²⁸  ‘Let the temple be rebuilt as a place where sacrifices are offered. Let its foundations be set in place. ²⁹  Its height is to be ninety feet and its width ninety ³⁰  feet, ³¹ 

Ezra 6:14

6:14 The elders of the Jews continued building and prospering, while at the same time ³²  Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo continued prophesying. They built and brought it to completion by the command of the God of Israel and by the command of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia.

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 tn Heb “and Sherebiah.” The words “this man was” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

⁴ tn Or “relatives” (so CEV; NRSV “kin”); also in v. 19.

⁴ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.” So also in v. 3.

⁵ tn Heb “Let us build with you.”

⁶ tc The translation reads with the Qere, a Qumran MS, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Arabic version וְלוֹ (vÿlo, “and him”) rather than the Kethib of the MT, וְלֹא (vÿlo’, “and not”).

⁷ tn Heb “days.”

⁸ sn Esarhaddon was king of Assyria ca. 681-669 b.c.

⁹ sn The Assyrian policy had been to resettle Samaria with peoples from other areas (cf. 2 Kgs 17:24-34). These immigrants acknowledged Yahweh as well as other deities in some cases. The Jews who returned from the Exile regarded them with suspicion and were not hospitable to their offer of help in rebuilding the temple.

⁵ tn Or “temple.”

⁶ tn Aram “they were given.”

⁶ tn Heb “brought them forth.”

⁷ tn Heb “upon the hand of.”

⁸ sn A Persian name meaning “gift of Mithras.” See HALOT 656 s.v. מִתְרְדָת.

⁹ sn A Babylonian name with the probable meaning “Shamash protect the father.” See HALOT 1664-65 s.v. שֵׁשְׁבַּצַּר.

¹⁰ tn Heb “Sheshbazzar the prince to Judah”; TEV, CEV “the governor of Judah.”

⁷ tn Aram “Osnappar” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV), another name for Ashurbanipal.

⁸ tc The translation reads with the ancient versions the plural בְּקֻרְיַהּ (bÿquryah, “in the cities”) rather than the singular (“in the city”) of the MT.

⁹ tn Aram “beyond the river.” In Ezra this term is a technical designation for the region west of the Euphrates river.

⁸ tc The translation reads the Hiphil singular וַיַּעֲל (vayya’al, “he [Ezra] brought up”) rather than the Qal plural וַיַּעַלוּ (vayya’alu, “they came up”) of the MT.

⁹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁹ tn Heb “silver.”

¹⁰ map For location see Map1-A1; JP3-F3; JP4-F3.

¹¹ map For location see Map1-A2; Map2-G2; Map4-A1; JP3-F3; JP4-F3.

¹² tn Heb “to the sea”

¹⁰ tn Aram “In the first year of Cyrus the king.”

¹¹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹² tn Aram “raised”; or perhaps “retained” (so NASB; cf. NLT), referring to the original foundations of Solomon’s temple.

¹³ tc The Syriac Peshitta reads “twenty cubits” here, a measurement probably derived from dimensions given elsewhere for Solomon’s temple. According to 1 Kgs 6:2 the dimensions of the Solomonic temple were as follows: length, 60 cubits; width, 20 cubits; height, 30 cubits. Since one would expect the dimensions cited in Ezra 6:3 to correspond to those of Solomon’s temple, it is odd that no dimension for length is provided. The Syriac has apparently harmonized the width dimension provided here (“twenty cubits”) to that given in 1 Kgs 6:2.

¹⁴ tn Aram “Its height sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about eighteen inches (45 cm) long.

¹¹ tn Aram “in” or “by,” in the sense of accompaniment.