This verse is the second part of the message. It explains how the command given to Cyrus by God will be carried out. Cyrus is to accomplish the purpose of God through God’s own people.

Whoever is among you of all his people: The Hebrew text may be understood in different ways. It may be interpreted as Revised Standard Version has done (Amplified Bible; similarly New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New English Bible, Darby), or more simply with “Anyone of his people among you” (New International Version). The Hebrew may also be read in the form of a question: “Who is there among you of all his people?” (so Nouvelle version Segond révisée, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). To this question the people may answer by identifying themselves as the worshipers of the LORD. The New International Version translation is recommended as the model to follow here.

The Hebrew word for people here refers to a community that shares something in common which gives them solidarity. Here what links the Jews is the worship of the LORD God who is related to the Temple in Jerusalem.

May his God be with him: Cyrus believed that each community had its own god or gods, usually in the form of idols, which would be carried with them when they traveled or moved from one place to another. Thus he said may his God be with him. This is the king’s wish for the people who are being addressed in his message. In languages whose scripts distinguish between capital and small letters, most translations write “God” with an initial capital letter here and in the last phrase of the verse (he is the God who is in Jerusalem) because it refers to the LORD God of Israel. However, from the point of view of King Cyrus, the generic word for “god” may be appropriate. If this is the correct interpretation, King Cyrus may simply be authorizing the Jews to take their “god” back with them to the place they had come from. Most translations, however, take the expression to be a form of blessing or benediction pronounced by King Cyrus upon the Jews, and this approach is recommended. The masculine singular pronoun him is used collectively here to refer to all the Jews, both men and women. Good News Translation makes this clear by saying “May God be with all of you.”

Let him go up to Jerusalem: Cyrus gave the people permission to leave their exile in Babylonia and return to Jerusalem in Judah. The form of the verb called the jussive form is used in Hebrew here to indicate the will or desire of the speaker. It implies permission rather than being a direct command as would be indicated by the imperative form. They were permitted, not ordered, to return to Jerusalem (in contrast to Ezra 4.3). This accounts for the fact that many Jewish exiles remained in Babylonia and Persia. The policy of Cyrus was to allow the exiles of various peoples in Babylonia to return to their homelands and to rebuild their temples. In this way he gained loyal supporters of the empire on its far borders. Several groups of Jewish exiles returned to Jerusalem through the years (see for example Ezra 1 and 8). Many versions translate this as a third person imperative as Revised Standard Version has done (so New International Version, Revised English Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). Some contemporary versions avoid the imperative as Good News Translation has done. Bible en français courant generalizes in the plural with “they are invited to return to Jerusalem.”

To go up to Jerusalem is a common expression in the Scriptures because Jerusalem is located in the hills. Anyone going to Jerusalem went uphill from the surrounding countryside. To go up is also commonly used for travel to a sacred site. However, here it means to travel north from Babylonia by way of the Euphrates River in the direction of Jerusalem. In many languages the same verbal expression may be used for climbing to higher ground and for traveling in a northerly direction, but in others “go up” may be used for one direction or another without reference to gaining or losing height.

Rebuild the house: The Hebrew text is literally “build the house.” Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation say rebuild because the Temple had been destroyed in 586 B.C. and the books of Ezra and Nehemiah recount how the Temple was rebuilt. Translating rebuild here in Cyrus’s edict also suggests that he knew the history of the destruction of the Temple, and this is likely because it was his policy to help returning exiles restore their religious practices. Other versions, however, are not quite as explicit. They translate the Hebrew “build the house/House” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Nouvelle version Segond révisée), while others say “build the temple/Temple” (New International Version, Chouraqui, La Sainte Bible: La version Etablie par les moines de Maredsous). Translators are advised to say “build again” or “rebuild” as both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have done.

The God of Israel is another title for the LORD who is identified as the God of the people of Israel, that is, the descendants of Jacob.

Quoted with permission from Noss, Philip A. and Thomas, Kenneth J. A Handbook on Ezra. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2005. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .