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Summary

Ezra 1:1–4 – Cyrus sends Israel home

What happens: God stirs Cyrus king of Persia to issue a decree that the Lord has charged him to build a house in Jerusalem. Cyrus invites any of God’s people to go up and rebuild the temple and tells neighbors to support them with silver, gold, goods, and animals. He commands gifts for the house of God.

What it means: God keeps His word and moves the hearts of kings to fulfill His promises, as spoken by Jeremiah. The return is not human achievement but God’s faithfulness and sovereignty. Generosity from outsiders shows God can provide through unexpected channels. Worship and obedience stand at the center of the mission.

Ezra 1:5–8 – Families rise to return

What happens: Heads of Judah and Benjamin, along with priests and Levites, rise to go because God stirs their spirits. Their neighbors give them silver, gold, goods, and costly items. Cyrus brings out the temple vessels that Nebuchadnezzar took and puts them under Sheshbazzar’s oversight.

What it means: God’s call produces real action in people who fear Him. He restores what was lost and equips His people to serve Him. Leadership matters, but the true driver is God’s hand. Worship is not a private idea but a public work that needs resources and order.

Ezra 1:9–11 – Sacred inventory

What happens: The narrator lists the gold and silver vessels by number and weight. The total returns to Jerusalem with the exiles.

What it means: Detailed care for holy things shows reverence for God’s house. Accountability and transparency honor God and protect the community. Holiness involves both heart devotion and careful stewardship.

Application

  • Act when God stirs your heart, even if the path is costly.
  • Support God’s work with resources and prayer, trusting He provides.
  • Practice careful stewardship in all that belongs to God.

Bible

1Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,

2Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

3Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem.

4And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.

5Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem.

6And all they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things, beside all that was willingly offered.

7Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his gods;

8Even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah.

9And this is the number of them: thirty chargers of gold, a thousand chargers of silver, nine and twenty knives,

10Thirty basons of gold, silver basons of a second sort four hundred and ten, and other vessels a thousand.

11All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up with them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem.

← 2 Chronicles 36Ezra 2 →

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