Ezra 5:13

13 However, King Cyrus of Babylon, during the first year of his reign, issued a decree that the Temple of God should be rebuilt.

Ezra 5:13 Meaning and Commentary

Ezra 5:13

But in the first year of Cyrus the king of Babylon
That is, the first year he was king of Babylon, having taken it, otherwise he was king of Persia many years before:

the same King Cyrus made a decree to build this house of God;
see ( Ezra 1:1-4 ) .

Ezra 5:13 In-Context

11 “This was their answer: ‘We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the Temple that was built here many years ago by a great king of Israel.

12 But because our ancestors angered the God of heaven, he abandoned them to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who destroyed this Temple and exiled the people to Babylonia.

13 However, King Cyrus of Babylon, during the first year of his reign, issued a decree that the Temple of God should be rebuilt.

14 King Cyrus returned the gold and silver cups that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple of God in Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of Babylon. These cups were taken from that temple and presented to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom King Cyrus appointed as governor of Judah.

15 The king instructed him to return the cups to their place in Jerusalem and to rebuild the Temple of God there on its original site.

Footnotes

• [a]. King Cyrus of Persia is here identified as the king of Babylon because Persia had conquered the Babylonian Empire.