How did Cyrus's decree provide for the return and rebuilding?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Cyrus proclaimed the charge to build God's house in Jerusalem, invited God's people to go, called for material help, and returned the temple vessels through Mithridates to Sassabasar.

Chapter breakdown

In the first year of Cyrus king of the Persians, the word spoken by the Lord through Jeremias reached its fulfillment when the Lord stirred the spirit of the monarch. Cyrus issued a royal decree throughout his entire realm, making a proclamation and issuing it in writing, professing that the Lord God of heaven had bestowed on him the kingdoms of the earth and commanded him to construct a house at Jerusalem in Judea.

The Persian monarch invited all members of God's people to journey to Jerusalem to reconstruct the sanctuary of the Lord God of Israel, asking that God accompany them. Cyrus commanded that in every place where survivors resided, local inhabitants should sustain those departing by providing silver, gold, goods, livestock, and voluntary gifts for the temple of God.

In response to the decree, the principal heads of Juda and Benjamin, the priests, the Levites, and everyone whose heart God had moved prepared to travel to Jerusalem to rebuild the house of the Lord. Surrounding neighbors supported their journey, equipping them with vessels of silver and gold, domestic goods, beasts, and freewill offerings.

King Cyrus also restored the vessels of the temple of the Lord that Nabuchodonosor had carried away from Jerusalem and deposited in the temple of his god. The king delivered these treasures through Mithridates the son of Gazabar, who counted them out to Sassabasar the prince of Juda. The itemized tally enumerated thirty golden bowls, one thousand silver bowls, twenty-nine knives, thirty golden cups, four hundred and ten silver cups of a second sort, and one thousand other vessels, which sum together to two thousand four hundred and ninety-nine items. The text records the total of all the vessels of gold and silver as five thousand four hundred. Sassabasar brought all these with the exiles as they traveled from the captivity of Babylon to Jerusalem.

The story inside

In Cyrus's first year, the Lord stirred his spirit in fulfillment of Jeremias's word. The decree invited the return and required local assistance in silver, gold, goods, cattle, and voluntary offerings. Family heads, priests, Levites, and those moved by God rose to go, and neighbors supplied them. Cyrus recovered vessels taken by Nabuchodonosor and had them counted to Sassabasar. The itemized figures sum to 2,499, while the text reports 5,400 overall; no reconciliation is supplied. The vessels traveled with the returning exiles; worship and rebuilding are not yet completed in this chapter.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The decree and response are specific to Cyrus and these returning exiles.
2
The assistance clause adds detail to Cyrus's decree already reported at the end of Paralipomenon.
3
Recovery of vessels supplies the returning community but is not itself completion of temple service.

Test your recall

How did Cyrus's decree and the neighbors' assistance equip the exiles to undertake rebuilding?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 47888–47891
In the first year of Cyrus king of the Persians, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremias might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of the Persians: and he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and in writing also, saying:
Lines 47893–47895
The Lord the God of heaven hath given to me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judea.
Lines 47918–47920
Now Cyrus king of Persia brought them forth by the hand of Mithridates the son of Gazabar, and numbered them to Sassabasar the prince of Juda.
Lines 47928–47930
All the vessels of gold and silver, five thousand four hundred: all these Sassabasar brought with them that came up from the captivity of Babylon to Jerusalem.