Chapter 1
1In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows: 2“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, who has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, has appointed me to build a house for Him at Jerusalem in Judah. 3Whoever among you belongs to His people, may his God be with him, and may he go to Jerusalem in Judah and build the house of the LORD, the God of Israel; He is the God who is in Jerusalem. 4And let every survivor, wherever he lives, be assisted by the men of that region with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, along with a freewill offering for the house of God in Jerusalem.’ ” 5So the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and Levites—everyone whose spirit God had stirred—prepared to go up and rebuild the house of the LORD in Jerusalem. 6And all their neighbors supported them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuables, in addition to all their freewill offerings. 7King Cyrus also brought out the articles belonging to the house of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the temple of his gods. 8Cyrus king of Persia had them brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. 9This was the inventory: 30 gold dishes, 1,000 silver dishes, 29 silver utensils, 1030 gold bowls, 410 matching silver bowls, and 1,000 other articles. 11In all, there were 5,400 gold and silver articles. Sheshbazzar brought all these along when the exiles went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.
Chapter 2
1Now these are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles carried away to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar its king. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town, 2accompanied by Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. This is the count of the men of Israel: 3the descendants of Parosh, 2,172; 4the descendants of Shephatiah, 372; 5the descendants of Arah, 775; 6the descendants of Pahath-moab (through the line of Jeshua and Joab), 2,812; 7the descendants of Elam, 1,254; 8the descendants of Zattu, 945; 9the descendants of Zaccai, 760; 10the descendants of Bani, 642; 11the descendants of Bebai, 623; 12the descendants of Azgad, 1,222; 13the descendants of Adonikam, 666; 14the descendants of Bigvai, 2,056; 15the descendants of Adin, 454; 16the descendants of Ater (through Hezekiah), 98; 17the descendants of Bezai, 323; 18the descendants of Jorah, 112; 19the descendants of Hashum, 223; 20the descendants of Gibbar, 95; 21the men of Bethlehem, 123; 22the men of Netophah, 56; 23the men of Anathoth, 128; 24the descendants of Azmaveth, 42; 25the men of Kiriath-jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, 743; 26the men of Ramah and Geba, 621; 27the men of Michmash, 122; 28the men of Bethel and Ai, 223; 29the descendants of Nebo, 52; 30the descendants of Magbish, 156; 31the descendants of the other Elam, 1,254; 32the descendants of Harim, 320; 33the men of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, 725; 34the men of Jericho, 345; 35and the descendants of Senaah, 3,630.