RETURN FROM EXILE · 1 OF 3
A way back to Jerusalem
The way home opens through a royal proclamation, willing people and tangible help. Read how the book of Ezra brings these together under Hashem’s promise of return.
In this lesson
Why is this a return?
Exile means being forced away from one’s homeland. The book of Kings tells how Babylonian forces burned the Temple in Jerusalem and carried many Judeans away. It also says that some poor people remained to work the land. Our people’s exile was a profound loss, not the disappearance of every Jewish person from the land.
Jerusalem is the city of the Temple, the central sanctuary also called God’s House. The destroyed sanctuary is known as the First Temple; the sanctuary rebuilt after the return is the Second Temple. A Temple is not an ordinary house or a synagogue.
Our reading begins under Persian rule. Cyrus is king of Persia, not a king of Israel. Judah is the land around Jerusalem in this setting. Babylon is the place of exile from which people will return. “Israel” in these passages names our people.
Ezra and Nehemiah belong to the Writings, or Ketuvim, the third part of Tanakh, our Scriptures. We will follow three scenes: an authorized return, renewed worship and building, and a later public Torah reading. They are connected stages, not events from one day. No Hebrew knowledge or list of ancient dates is needed.
Hashem, “the Name,” is our reverent way of referring to God in study. In the English sources below, it represents the divine name.
Background: 2 Kings 25:8–12. For the larger historical and literary map, see Our story and Our books.
Hear the narrator and the king
A proclamation is a public announcement. Here it is also put in writing. The narrator tells us what happens; within that account, Cyrus speaks in his own proclamation. Watch where the quotation begins and ends.
The people named later in the passage include heads of ancestral houses, leaders of extended family groups. Judah and Benjamin there name tribal families. Priests, or kohanim, are descendants of Aaron assigned priestly service; Levites are members of the tribe of Levi with other sanctuary roles. A freewill offering is a willingly given contribution.
הֵעִיר יְהוָה, אֶת־רוּחַ כֹּרֶשׁ מֶלֶךְ־פָּרַס
כֹּה אָמַר, כֹּרֶשׁ מֶלֶךְ פָּרַס
1. In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, so that Hashem’s word spoken through Jeremiah would be fulfilled, Hashem stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia. He issued a proclamation throughout his kingdom, also in writing, saying:
2. “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: Hashem, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has charged me to build Him a House in Jerusalem, in Judah.
3. Whoever among you belongs to all His people, may his God be with him. Let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the House of Hashem, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem.
4. As for anyone who remains in any place where he lives, let the people of his place support him with silver, gold, possessions and livestock, together with the freewill offering for the House of God in Jerusalem.”
5. Then the heads of ancestral houses of Judah and Benjamin, the priests and the Levites arose, with everyone whose spirit God had stirred, to go up and build the House of Hashem in Jerusalem.
6. All their neighbors strengthened their hands with silver vessels, gold, possessions, livestock and valuable gifts, besides all that was freely offered.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
The first Hebrew line says that Hashem stirred Cyrus’s spirit. The second begins, “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia.” These are two different voices in the account. Jeremiah, named in verse 1, is the prophet whose earlier promise we will read near the end of this lesson.
Verse 3 directs the building to Jerusalem. It does not confine God to that city: the same proclamation calls Him “the God of heaven” in verse 2. Keep the whole speech in view.
1. Who says the kingdoms were given to him, and who reports that Hashem stirred Cyrus’s spirit?
Cyrus says that the kingdoms were given to him, in verse 2. The narrator reports the stirring in verse 1. Verses 2–4 are Cyrus’s proclamation within the narrator’s account; the quotation is not the whole passage.
Stirred spirits, different roles
Notice the return of the same action in verse 5:
לְכֹל הֵעִיר הָאֱלֹהִים, אֶת־רוּחוֹ
“with everyone whose spirit God had stirred”
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
Rashi, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, is one of our classical biblical commentators. On verse 1, he explains the stirred spirit in terms of willingness. The narrator links the king’s initiative and the returnees’ willingness through God’s action, without making their tasks identical.
2. Whose spirits does God stir in verses 1 and 5?
Cyrus’s spirit in verse 1, and the spirits of the people rising to go and build in verse 5. The repeated action links royal permission and the returnees’ response. It does not make a royal proclamation the same thing as traveling and building.
3. According to verse 3, who is to go, where, and for what task?
Someone from God’s people is to go up to Jerusalem in Judah to build Hashem’s House. Cyrus speaks the authorization. This verse does not report Cyrus traveling to do the building himself.
A way home needs material help
Verse 4 asks the people of a person’s locality to provide help:
יְנַשְּׂאוּהוּ אַנְשֵׁי מְקֹמוֹ
“let the people of his place support him”
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
Rashi explains the difficulty: a Jew might be unable to go because he lacks the means. Assistance from the people around him makes the journey possible. Rashi also includes neighboring peoples among those who contribute. The return is not pictured as an undertaking supported only by private resolve.
The material-barrier explanation is Rashi’s teaching about the verse. The biblical words themselves list silver, gold, possessions and livestock. Keeping both levels clear lets us hear what the source says and how the commentary helps us understand it.
4. What obstacle does Rashi see addressed by the assistance in verse 4?
Lack of means could prevent a person from going. Local support helps make the return possible. The explanation of that obstacle belongs to Rashi; the verse itself lists the assistance. It is not saying that everyone named as remaining must choose to stay forever.
A worked comparison: requested and given
Put verse 4 beside verse 6. We can follow a response without requiring two lists to be identical.
- Identify the form. In verse 4, the king calls for support. In verse 6, the narrator reports support actually given.
- Choose one concrete item. Verse 4 names silver; verse 6 names silver vessels.
- State the connection carefully. What was called for now appears in the community’s response, though the wording of the two lists differs.
וְכָל־סְבִיבֹתֵיהֶם חִזְּקוּ בִידֵיהֶם
“All their neighbors strengthened their hands”
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
“Strengthened their hands” is an idiom for supporting their work. The rest of the verse tells us what that support looked like. In this account, willingness and practical provision belong together.
5. Find two other kinds of support requested in verse 4 and actually given in verse 6.
Gold, possessions or goods, and livestock are available matches. Your ordinary English words need not be identical to the rendering. The important distinction is between a call for assistance and the narrator’s report that assistance was given.
6. Does verse 5 report a completed Temple? Does this selection announce an independent kingdom?
Verse 5 reports people rising to go and build, not a finished Temple. Cyrus remains identified as king of Persia; the selection authorizes rebuilding and does not announce political independence. Permission, a willing response and resources are meaningful beginnings, but they are not yet the completed House.
Return tomorrow
9. Reconstruct permission → response → support. Then supply one verse and one limit to your account.
Cyrus authorizes return and building, and calls for assistance. Leaders and others rise to go. Neighbors supply tangible support. Ezra 1:3–6 provides the evidence.
A useful limit is that the Temple is not yet reported complete, or that the passage does not say every Jew returned at once. Reopen the text and improve one detail in your remembered account. Careful recall includes what the source has not yet told us.
Return to the sources
- Ezra 1: the complete selection here is verses 1–6; verses 7–11 continue with Temple vessels and their inventory.
- Rashi on Ezra 1:1,4–6: the promise, willingness and material support.
- Jeremiah 29:1–10: the letter’s audience and promise of return.
- 2 Kings 25:8–12: the destruction and deportation behind the opening context.