The third part of Cyrus’s message gives details about provisions and help for the building of the Temple. Survivor is literally “each one left.” Survivor, in whatever place he sojourns can refer either to the remnant of Jews in Babylonia or to those who will remain in Babylonia, whether Jew or Babylonian, after the others return to Jerusalem. The verb be assisted is often translated as a passive, which would indicate that the men of his place are those who are to help the ones who return to Jerusalem. But the verb in Hebrew is active and would seem to indicate that those who are left are to “help” the men of his place, that is, those who will return to Jerusalem. In either case, the meaning is the same: those who remain are to help those who return. Some versions translate the men of his place as “their neighbors” (Good News Translation; similarly New English Bible/Revised English Bible), leaving open whether they are Jews or Babylonians, men or women.

The most widely accepted interpretation for this verse is that the people of any locality, wherever there are Jews who have survived in exile, should provide help to those Jews for the rebuilding of the Temple. This is like the time of the exodus when the Egyptians gave their jewelry to the Israelites who were leaving Egypt (Exo 12.36). This is the interpretation recommended to translators by this Handbook.

The edict of Cyrus specified the kinds of assistance that were to be given to the survivors. Five items are listed: silver, gold, goods, beasts and freewill offerings. Silver and gold were valuable metals that were used as money and for making jewelry and other precious objects. Goods refers generally to any kind of “equipment” (New Jerusalem Bible), materials, and utensils, or even “pack-animals” (New English Bible footnote). Beasts refers to four-legged domestic animals or “livestock” (New International Version) such as sheep, goats and cattle. The freewill offerings were to be like the gifts given for the making of the tabernacle (Exo 25.1-7; 35.4-9) and Solomon’s Temple (1 Chr 29.2-9) as well as for their upkeep. The specific gifts that were to be given as freewill offerings were not prescribed. They were only described as being offered voluntarily, that is, coming from the hearts of the people. Contemporary English Version in contemporary English simply calls them “gifts.”

For silver and gold, translators should specify these two precious metals and not generalize to say money. In some languages silver is called “white metal” or “white wealth,” and gold may be referred to as “red wealth” or perhaps more commonly it is a borrowed word from a neighboring language or from an international language. Some languages will need to change the word order to “gold and silver” in order to sound natural. For goods a general term should be adopted that refers to materials or equipment, for example, “things for work,” rather than property in the sense of wealth. If there is no general word for livestock, it may be necessary to specify “homestead animals,” “things that are raised,” or “animals that are cared for like sheep, goats and cattle.”

For the house of God which is in Jerusalem: The gifts were to be given for the Temple that was located in Jerusalem, that is, for rebuilding and maintaining it. The word used here to refer to God is the common Hebrew full form ʾelohim (see “Translating Ezra and Nehemiah,” page 19).

Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation both present the first four verses in two separate parts with verse 1 as the introduction and verses 2-4 as the text of the letter. These verses are a single sentence in Hebrew. Good News Translation breaks them into eight separate sentences in order to make reading easier. Translators should use a sentence structure that is natural in the receptor language and that makes the narrative easy to read and understand.

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 .