Ezra 1:5

CYRUS RETURNS TO ISRAEL THE SACRED VESSELS LOOTED FROM THE TEMPLE BY NEBUCHADNEZZAR

"Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, even all whose spirit God had stirred up to go up to build the house of God which is in Jerusalem. And all they that were round about them strengthened their hand with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things, besides all that was willingly offered. Also Cyrus the king brought for the vessels of the house of Jehovah, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and put in the house of his gods; even these did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. And this is the number of them: thirty platters of gold, a thousand platters of silver, nine and twenty knives, thirty bowls of gold, silver bowls of a second sort four hundred and ten, and other vessels a thousand. All the vessels of gold and of silver were five thousand and four hundred. All these did Sheshbazzar bring up, when they of the captivity were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem."

"The heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin" (Ezra 1:5). Although Cyrus' decree was broad enough to have included any of the northern tribes who might have survived the Assyrian captivity (Ezra 1:3), this mention of those who responded makes it clear that there was no significant response from any of the tribes except that of Judah and Benjamin.

"And all that were about them strengthened their hand" (Ezra 1:6). "This is usually held to include Babylonians."[9] And why not? The generous example set by the king himself would have prompted many others to follow his lead; and, as the text stands, it could hardly fail to include all the neighbors, even the Babylonians.

"Even these did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth ... and numbered them unto Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah" (Ezra 1:8). "This is a reference to Nebuchadnezzar's looting of the Temple of Solomon on both of those occasions when he captured Jerusalem in 597 B.C. and in 587 B.C.[10] These sacred vessels he had laid up as trophies in the house of his gods; and upon the night when Babylon fell, the drunken king Belshazzar was having a great feast for his lords and concubines, when he sent for the sacred vessels of the Jewish Temple to drink from them. That was the occasion (Daniel 5) when the fingers of a man's hand wrote the doom of Babylon on the wall, and the city fell that night.

"All these did Sheshbazzar bring up when they of the captivity were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem" (Ezra 1:11). Two things of importance should be noted here. Sheshbazzar who here is seen to have led the first emigration to Jerusalem disappears from the Biblical narrative after this brief mention; but as Williamson noted, "This should not surprise us, because no first hand account (of all that happened) has survived."[11]

Also, "The passive verb `were brought up' is deliberately chosen here to imply divine activity. The narrative thus echoes the description of the Exodus (Exodus 33:1). `Brought up' from Babylon to Jerusalem thus becomes the counterpart of `brought up' out of the land of Egypt."[12]