Ezra 1:1-4
God keeps His word after exile by stirring Cyrus to send His people back to Jerusalem and summon support for the rebuilding of the temple.
1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that Yahweh’s word by Jeremiah’s mouth might be accomplished, Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
2 “Cyrus king of Persia says, ‘Yahweh, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has commanded me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
3 Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of Yahweh, the God of Israel (he is God), which is in Jerusalem.
4 Whoever is left, in any place where he lives, let the men of his place help him with silver, with gold, with goods, and with animals, in addition to the free will offering for God’s house which is in Jerusalem.’ ”
God keeps his word after exile by stirring Cyrus to send his people back to Jerusalem and summon support for the rebuilding of the temple.
Ezra 1:1-4 opens the return narrative by showing that the restoration from exile begins because the LORD keeps his prophetic word and sovereignly moves a pagan king to authorize the rebuilding of the house of God in Jerusalem.
Ezra begins where the closing note of exile ends, presenting Cyrus's first-year proclamation as the initiating act of restoration. This unit (1:1-4) contains the decree itself and establishes the theological frame-prophetic fulfillment and divine sovereignty-before the narrative turns to the people's stirred response and the restoration of temple vessels (1:5-11).
The decree occurs in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, after Babylon's fall and at the opening of Persian rule over the former Babylonian territories.