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If any of his people in exile need help to return, their neighbors must give them this help, providing them with silver and gold
7
and other gifts, with horses and pack animals, as well as anything else offered for the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem in fulfillment of a vow."
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Then the heads of the clans of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the priests and the Levites, and everyone else whose heart the Lord had moved, got ready to go and rebuild the Lord's Temple in Jerusalem.
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Their neighbors helped them with everything, giving them silver, gold, horses, and pack animals. Many of their neighbors were also led to give a large number of other things, in fulfillment of vows.
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Emperor Cyrus gave them back the sacred utensils that King Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and had put in the temple of his idols.
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He brought them out and handed them over to Mithredath, chief of the royal treasury,
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who delivered them to Sheshbazzar, the governor of Judah.
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Here is the inventory of the utensils:
gold bowls for offerings 1,000 silver bowls for offerings 1,000 silver fire pans 29 small gold bowls 30 small silver bowls 2,410 other utensils 1,000
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In all there were 5,469 gold and silver bowls and other utensils,
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and Sheshbazzar took these with him when he and the other exiles went from Babylon to Jerusalem.
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In the reign of Emperor Artaxerxes of Persia, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, Rehum, Beltethmus, Shimshai the secretary of the province, and their associates who lived in Samaria and elsewhere wrote the following letter in protest against the Jews who were living in Judah and Jerusalem: