Cyrus's decree and the first return from exile

Ezra 1 opens the book of Ezra, which was joined with Nehemiah as one book in the Hebrew Bible. Ezra-Nehemiah tells how the exiles came back to Judah under the Persian empire and rebuilt the temple, the city wall and the life of the community under the Law. Jewish tradition (Bava Batra 15a) credits Ezra with writing it, and Ezra himself speaks in the first person from Ezra 7:27. Many scholars think the same author wrote Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah, since 2 Chronicles 36:22-23 repeats the first verses of Ezra almost word for word. Others, such as Sara Japhet, argue for different authors. The question does not change how this chapter is read.

The date is clear in outline. Babylon had destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC (some date it to 587). In 539 BC Cyrus the Great of Persia took Babylon. His 'first year' over the city, most likely 538 BC, is the date of the decree. Jeremiah had spoken of seventy years of Babylonian rule and of the LORD's coming to bring his people back (Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10). Ezra 1:1 names this as the word being fulfilled. Isaiah had even named Cyrus as the LORD's shepherd and anointed one (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1). Scholars differ on whether Isaiah 40-55 was written by the eighth-century prophet or by a later prophet among the exiles. Either way, the text presents the words as spoken before the event.

The first readers were the returned community, a small group struggling to rebuild in a poor province of a huge empire. The Cyrus Cylinder, a clay inscription found at Babylon, tells of Cyrus returning captured peoples to their homes and restoring the sanctuaries of their gods. It does not mention the Jews or Jerusalem by name. It shows that the policy in Ezra 1 matches the practice of the Persian kings, and Ezra 1 tells it from inside the story of Israel.

Ezra 1 is Hebrew historical narrative with an official document inside it. The decree in verses 2-4 is given as Cyrus's own words. A second Aramaic form of the decree, preserved as a record in the royal archives, appears in Ezra 6:3-5. Such documents are quoted throughout the book to show that the rebuilding was legal and was done under the authority of the empire. The narrator's own framing in verses 1 and 5 shows what the author wants us to see.

The frame is a pair of matching statements. In verse 1 the LORD 'stirred the spirit' of Cyrus. In verse 5 God stirs the spirit of the family heads, priests and Levites. The same divine action reaches a king and a people. The chapter has one purpose: to show that the return is God's work from start to finish, whoever the visible agents are.

We should read Cyrus's words in two ways at once. Within the Persian world, Cyrus was a ruler who honored the gods of the peoples he governed, and his titles for the God of Israel may be a courtesy. The Hebrew narrator, however, reports the words as truth: the LORD, the God of heaven, has given the kingdoms and has appointed Cyrus to build him a house. The narrator does not say that Cyrus became a worshipper of the LORD alone. He says that God used Cyrus, as he earlier used Assyria and Babylon, to carry out his purpose. Finally, the chapter should be read with the exodus in mind. The wealth sent with the exiles echoes the plundering of Egypt (Exodus 12:35-36), and this return is meant to be heard as a second departure.

Verse 1

The chapter begins 'in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah'. The author connects history to prophecy at once. The verb for 'stirred' (he'ir) means to rouse or awaken, and it is used for the LORD's work on a king's spirit. A proclamation is sent through all the kingdom and also put in writing. Persian rule depended on heralds and written orders, so this means the decree was official and public.

Verse 2

Cyrus says the LORD, 'the God of heaven', has given him all the kingdoms of the earth. 'God of heaven' is the title the Persian-period books use for the God of Israel (Ezra 5:11-12; 6:9-10; Nehemiah 1:4). Cyrus also says the LORD appointed him to build a house in Jerusalem. The Hebrew verb for 'appointed' (paqad) means to charge with a duty. The king's reading of his conquests is that they were given to him for a purpose.

Verse 3

Anyone of the LORD's people may go up to Jerusalem, and 'may his God be with him'. The word 'go up' (alah) is the old word for traveling to Jerusalem and to the temple, and it is the last word in the Hebrew Bible when Chronicles ends. The decree adds, 'He is the God who is in Jerusalem'. The aim of the journey is not general resettlement but the house of the LORD.

Verse 4

Those who stay behind are to give help. The 'survivors' (literally the remnant) are assisted with silver, gold, goods and livestock, together with a freewill offering. The helpers are the people among whom the Jews live, and the text does not limit them to Jews. Not everyone has to go. The decree sets up a partnership between those who go and those who give.

Verses 5–6

The response is led by the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, the tribes of the old southern kingdom, with the priests and Levites, 'everyone whose spirit God had stirred'. The wording stresses that not everyone responded. Many Jews stayed in Babylon, and their descendants form a large community there for centuries. Those who went did so because God moved them. The neighbors support them with silver, gold, goods and livestock, in addition to freewill offerings, just as the Egyptians gave to Israel.

Verses 7–8

Cyrus brings out the vessels of the house of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had carried off and put in the temple of his gods (2 Kings 25:13-15; Daniel 1:2). Mithredath the treasurer counts them out to Sheshbazzar, 'the prince of Judah'. The title 'prince' (nasi) suggests a descendant of the royal house, and some scholars identify Sheshbazzar with Shenazzar, a son of Jehoiachin (1 Chronicles 3:18), though this is not certain. Whether he is the same person as Zerubbabel is also debated, and most scholars distinguish them.

Verses 9–11

The inventory lists 30 gold dishes, 1,000 silver dishes, 29 silver utensils, 30 gold bowls, 410 silver bowls and 1,000 other articles, and the total is given as 5,400. The items listed add up to 2,499, so the figures do not match. Possible explanations include copying changes in the numbers, a list that names only some categories, or the grouping of items. The point of the passage is plain even if the arithmetic is not: nothing taken from the house of the LORD was lost, and Sheshbazzar carries it all back.

The first doctrine is God's sovereignty over history. The LORD is not confined to Israel. He rules Persia, and he moves the heart of the most powerful man in the world. Proverbs 21:1 says the king's heart is like channels of water in the LORD's hand. Isaiah and Jeremiah had said that the exile would end in God's time, and Ezra 1 shows that word coming true.

• The second is the faithfulness of God to his promises. The seventy years of Jeremiah are fulfilled, and the people receive what they could not take for themselves. The same God who sent them into exile for breaking the covenant now brings them back, as Leviticus 26:40-45 and Deuteronomy 30:1-5 had said he would.
• The third is the priority of worship. The decree is about a house for the LORD, not a throne for a king. The restored community is organized around the temple, the priesthood and the Law.

The chapter also leaves a tension. The return is real but small, and only part of the people go. The prophets had spoken of a grander restoration with nations streaming to Zion (Isaiah 40-55; Jeremiah 31). When the foundation of the second temple was laid, the old men who remembered the first wept (Ezra 3:12), and Haggai asked who among them had seen it in its former glory (Haggai 2:3). In the canon, Ezra 1 is the first step of an unfinished return. The community is back in the land, but the promises are not yet fully met, and the story remains open.

The first connection is promise and fulfillment inside the Old Testament: Jeremiah's word is fulfilled in Cyrus's decree. The New Testament then reads the whole period as a stage on the road to the Messiah. Matthew divides the genealogy of Jesus into three sets of fourteen generations, with the middle break at the deportation to Babylon and the last running from the exile to Christ (Matthew 1:17). Matthew names Zerubbabel and Shealtiel in the line (Matthew 1:12-13), and the return is part of that line's survival.

Cyrus can be called a limited type, or better an echo, of the Messiah. Isaiah gives him the title 'anointed' (Isaiah 45:1) and calls him the LORD's shepherd (Isaiah 44:28), and he does what the Messiah does in shadow: he frees captives and sends them to build God's house. The New Testament never calls Cyrus a type of Christ, so the link is an echo and nothing more. Cyrus does not know the LORD as his people do (Isaiah 45:4-5).

The temple the exiles go to rebuild also points ahead. Jesus said 'destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up', and John explains that he spoke of the temple of his body (John 2:19-21). Many scholars, such as N. T. Wright, argue that Jews in Jesus' day still felt their exile was not over, despite the return, and that Jesus announced its end. Others think this overstates the evidence. What is certain is that Luke shows people waiting for the 'consolation of Israel' and the 'redemption of Jerusalem' (Luke 2:25, 38), long after Cyrus.