Old/New Testament

1 In the first year of Koresh king of Persia, in order for the word of Adonai prophesied by Yirmeyahu to be fulfilled, Adonai stirred up the spirit of Koresh king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his whole kingdom, which he also put in writing, as follows:

² “Here is what Koresh king of Persia says: Adonai, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms on earth; and he has charged me to build him a house in Yerushalayim, in Y’hudah. ³ Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him! He may go up to Yerushalayim, in Y’hudah, and build the house of Adonai the God of Isra’el, the God who is in Yerushalayim. ⁴ Let every survivor, no matter where he lives, be helped by his neighbors with silver, gold, goods and animals, in addition to the voluntary offering for the house of God in Yerushalayim.”

⁵ The heads of fathers’ clans in Y’hudah and Binyamin, along with the cohanim, the L’vi’im, and indeed all whose spirit God had stirred, set out to go up and rebuild the house of Adonai in Yerushalayim. ⁶ All their neighbors supported them by giving them articles of silver, gold, goods, animals, and valuables, besides all their voluntary offerings.

⁷ In addition, Koresh the king brought out the vessels from the house of Adonai which N’vukhadnetzar had taken from Yerushalayim and put in the house of his god. ⁸ Koresh king of Persia had Mitr’dat the treasurer bring them out and make an inventory of them for Sheshbatzar the prince of Y’hudah. ⁹ The list was as follows:

¹¹ In all there were 5,400 articles of gold and silver. Sheshbatzar took all of them along when the exiles were brought up from Bavel to Yerushalayim.

2 Here is a list of the people of the province who had been exiled, carried off to Bavel by N’vukhadnetzar king of Bavel, but who later returned from exile and went up to Yerushalayim and Y’hudah, each to his own city; ² they went with Z’rubavel, Yeshua, Nechemyah, S’rayah, Re‘elyah, Mordekhai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rechum and Ba‘anah.

The number of men from the people of Isra’el:

⁵⁹ The following went up from Tel-Melach, Tel-Harsha, K’ruv, Adan and Immer; but they could not state which fathers’ clan they or their children belonged to, [so it was not clear] whether they were from Isra’el:

⁶¹ and of the descendants of the cohanim:

⁶² These tried to locate their genealogical records, but they weren’t found. Therefore they were considered defiled and were not allowed to serve as cohanim. ⁶³ The Tirshata told them not to eat any of the especially holy food until a cohen appeared who could consult the urim and tumim.

⁶⁴ The entire assembly numbered 42,360 — ⁶⁵ not including their male and female slaves, of whom there were 7,337. They also had 200 male and female singers.

⁶⁶ Their horses numbered 736; their mules, 245; ⁶⁷ their camels, 435; and their donkeys, 6,720.

⁶⁸ Some of the heads of fathers’ clans, when they came to the house of Adonai in Yerushalayim, made voluntary offerings for rebuilding the house of God on its site. ⁶⁹ According to their means they gave into the treasury for the work 61,000 gold darkmonim [about two-thirds of a ton], 5,000 manim of silver [just over three tons], and a hundred tunics for the cohanim.

⁷⁰ So the cohanim, the L’vi’im, some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers and the temple servants lived in their towns and all Isra’el in their towns.

²³ When the soldiers had nailed Yeshua to the stake, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, a share for each soldier, with the under-robe left over. Now the under-robe was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom; ²⁴ so they said to one another, “We shouldn’t tear it in pieces; let’s draw for it.” This happened in order to fulfill the words from the Tanakh,

This is why the soldiers did these things.

²⁵ Nearby Yeshua’s execution stake stood his mother, his mother’s sister Miryam the wife of K’lofah, and Miryam from Magdala. ²⁶ When Yeshua saw his mother and the talmid whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Mother, this is your son.” ²⁷ Then he said to the talmid, “This is your mother.” And from that time on, the talmid took her into his own home.

²⁸ After this, knowing that all things had accomplished their purpose, Yeshua, in order to fulfill the words of the Tanakh, said, “I’m thirsty.” ²⁹ A jar full of cheap sour wine was there; so they soaked a sponge in the wine, coated it with oregano leaves and held it up to his mouth. ³⁰ After Yeshua had taken the wine, he said, “It is accomplished!” And, letting his head droop, he delivered up his spirit.

³¹ It was Preparation Day, and the Judeans did not want the bodies to remain on the stake on Shabbat, since it was an especially important Shabbat. So they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies removed. ³² The soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been put on a stake beside Yeshua, then the legs of the other one; ³³ but when they got to Yeshua and saw that he was already dead, they didn’t break his legs. ³⁴ However, one of the soldiers stabbed his side with a spear, and at once blood and water flowed out. ³⁵ The man who saw it has testified about it, and his testimony is true. And he knows that he tells the truth, so you too can trust. ³⁶ For these things happened in order to fulfill this passage of the Tanakh:

³⁷ And again, another passage says,

³⁸ After this, Yosef of Ramatayim, who was a talmid of Yeshua, but a secret one out of fear of the Judeans, asked Pilate if he could have Yeshua’s body. Pilate gave his consent, so Yosef came and took the body away. ³⁹ Also Nakdimon, who at first had gone to see Yeshua by night, came with some seventy pounds of spices — a mixture of myrrh and aloes. ⁴⁰ They took Yeshua’s body and wrapped it up in linen sheets with the spices, in keeping with Judean burial practice. ⁴¹ In the vicinity of where he had been executed was a garden, and in the garden was a new tomb in which no one had ever been buried. ⁴² So, because it was Preparation Day for the Judeans, and because the tomb was close by, that is where they buried Yeshua.