Ezra 1

After seventy years of exile, God moves the Persian king Cyrus to let the Jews go home and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. God stirs both the king and His people, and neighbors help with gifts. The temple vessels taken by Nebuchadnezzar are returned, showing that God keeps His word.

Ezra 1:1

Ezra begins with God’s promise kept. Through Jeremiah He had spoken of a return from exile, and now He acts. Notice that the LORD Himself moves a pagan king’s heart. The rulers of the earth are not beyond His reach, and history serves His purposes.

BSA: stirred (“roused, motivated”): God Himself gets Cyrus moving, as one wakes a person from sleep and sets him to action.

See also: Jeremiah 29:10; Isaiah 44:28.

Ezra 1:2

Cyrus speaks of the LORD, the God of heaven, as the One who gave him his empire and charged him to build a temple at Jerusalem. Whatever Cyrus personally understood, his words honor the true God and carry out His plan.

BSA: appointed (“charged, commanded”): Cyrus describes the temple project as a duty laid on him, not just a favor he chose to grant.

See also: Isaiah 45:1-4.

Ezra 1:3

The decree invites every Jew to go home and build. The blessing “may his God be with him” matters most, because the work depends on God’s presence. The temple is for the God who chose to dwell in Jerusalem.

BSA: His people (“of all His people, from every nation”): The invitation is open to every member of God’s people wherever scattered, not only to a select few.

Ezra 1:4

Those who stay behind are not left out. Their neighbors are to help the returning Jews with silver, gold, goods and animals, plus a freewill offering. The whole effort rests on generosity, not force.

BSA: freewill offering (“voluntary donation, spontaneous gift”): The gifts are meant to flow from willing hearts, not from compulsion.

See also: Exodus 35:21.

Ezra 1:5

Only some responded, but those whose spirit God had stirred did. Family heads, priests and Levites prepared to go. The same God who moved the king moves His people. Leaving settled lives in Babylon for a ruined city took real faith.

BSA: stirred (“roused, awakened to action”): God’s awakening of their hearts is what turned a royal permission into real obedience.

Hebrew: לַעֲלוֹת (la’alot, H5927) — “to go up.” Hebrew speaks of going up to Jerusalem, because it sits on high ground and is the place of worship. The word carries a sense of pilgrimage.

Ezra 1:6

The neighbors gave generously with silver, gold, goods, livestock and treasures. This was in addition to what the Jews themselves offered willingly. God provided for the work even through those outside His people.

BSA: valuables (“precious things, choice gifts”): The neighbors gave their best items, not leftovers.

See also: Exodus 12:35-36.

Ezra 1:7

Cyrus returned the sacred vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in his own gods’ temple. What was once a sign of Babylon’s triumph is now brought back to its rightful home and use.

BSA: gods (“idols, false deities”): The holy vessels had sat in a house of idols, which makes their return a rescue.

See also: 2 Kings 24:13; Daniel 1:2.

Ezra 1:8

The vessels are handed over officially. Cyrus’s treasurer counts them out to Sheshbazzar, called prince of Judah, who is entrusted with their safe return. Careful counting shows that these were holy things, not to be lost.

BSA: counted them out (“to recount, as a scribe or secretary”): The word suggests careful, written accounting, so that nothing goes missing.

Ezra 1:9-10

The list names dishes, utensils and bowls of gold and silver, plus other articles. The exact numbers show how carefully the items were tracked. Nothing devoted to God was treated as small or unimportant.

BSA: inventory (“list of items, count”): A formal record was made, so the vessels could be checked against it on arrival.

Ezra 1:11

The total is 5,400 gold and silver articles. Sheshbazzar carried them with the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem. The first chapter ends with God’s people on the road home, bringing back what was lost.

BSA: exiles (“captives, those in bondage”): These were people once held in bondage, now set free to go home.

See also: Psalm 126:1-3.