Understanding The Bible

The Story of the Bible (Old Testament)

The restoration from Babylonian captivity

These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. It said: “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

Jeremiah 29:1-7

Who stirred up one from the east whom victory meets at every step?

He gives up nations before him, so that he tramples kings underfoot;

he makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with his bow.

Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the

beginning?I, the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.

Isaiah 41:2,4

Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings,to open doors before him that gates may not be closed:“I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me.I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God;I equip you, though you do not know me,that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me;I am the LORD, and there is no other.”

Isaiah 45:1-6

In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered, and let its foundations be retained. Its height shall be sixty cubits and its breadth sixty cubits, with three layers of great stones and one layer of timber. Let the cost be paid from the royal treasury. And also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that is in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back to the temple that is in Jerusalem, each to its place. You shall put them in the house of God.

Ezra 6:3-5

When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.

Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy;

then they said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.”

The LORD has done great things for us; we are glad.

Psalms 126:1-3

Understanding The Bible