Bible Strands
Ezra 1:5
So the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and Levites—everyone whose spirit God had stirred—prepared to go up and rebuild the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the immediate response to Cyrus’s decree, identifying returning exiles from Judah and Benjamin alongside the priests and Levites as they prepare to ascend to Jerusalem. This occurs in the first year of Cyrus’s reign, directly following the royal proclamation and the collection of contributions in the preceding verse.
The words — The text highlights לְ/כֹ֨ל (le./Khol), meaning “to every,” and וַ/יָּק֜וּמוּ (va/i.ya.Ku.mu), meaning “and they arose,” emphasizing the comprehensive scope of the responders and their decisive movement. These terms frame the transition from passive listing to active preparation.
The thread — The motif of divine stirring appears in Ezra 1:1 and 2 Chronicles 36:22, where the LORD initiates the return, and reappears in Philippians 2:13 regarding God working within believers to will and act. The narrative consistently traces human obedience back to prior divine impulse.
Why it lands — The verse requires readers to recognize that voluntary religious action in the text is explicitly attributed to prior divine initiative. It demands an accounting of human obedience as a response to God’s preceding work rather than independent zeal.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.
Cross-references
- Ezra 1:1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:
- 2 Chronicles 36:22 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:
- Philippians 2:13 For it is God who works in you to will and to act on behalf of His good purpose.
- Nehemiah 2:12 I set out at night with a few men. I did not tell anyone what my God had laid on my heart to do for Jerusalem. The only animal with me was the one on which I was riding.
- 2 Corinthians 8:16 But thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same devotion I have for you.
- James 1:16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.
- Proverbs 16:1 The plans of the heart belong to man, but the reply of the tongue is from the LORD.
- 3 John 1:11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.