Ezra 8

1These are the heads of their ancestral houses, and this is the genealogical record of those who went up with me from Babylon during the reign of King Artaxerxes:

2of the descendants of Phinehas, Gershom; of the descendants of Ithamar, Daniel; of the descendants of David, Hattush,

3of the descendants of Shecaniah; of the descendants of Parosh, Zechariah, and with him 150 males enrolled by genealogy;

4of the descendants of Pahath-moab, Eliehoenai son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males;

5of the descendants of Zattu, Shecaniah son of Jahaziel, and with him three hundred males;

6of the descendants of Adin, Ebed son of Jonathan, and with him fifty males;

7of the descendants of Elam, Jeshaiah son of Athaliah, and with him seventy males;

8of the descendants of Shephatiah, Zebadiah son of Michael, and with him eighty males;

9of the descendants of Joab, Obadiah son of Jehiel, and with him 218 males;

10of the descendants of Bani, Shelomith son of Josiphiah, and with him 160 males;

11of the descendants of Bebai, Zechariah son of Bebai, and with him twenty-eight males;

12of the descendants of Azgad, Johanan son of Hakkatan, and with him 110 males;

13of the descendants of Adonikam, the last ones, whose names were Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them sixty males;

14and of the descendants of Bigvai, Uthai and Zaccur, and with them seventy males.

15I assembled them at the river that runs to Ahava, and we camped there three days. When I reviewed the people and the priests, I found none of the descendants of Levi there.

16So I sent for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, who were leaders, and for Joiarib and Elnathan, who were men of understanding.

17I sent them with instructions to Iddo, the leader at the place called Casiphia, and told them what to say to Iddo and his brothers the temple servants at Casiphia, so that they would bring us ministers for the house of our God.

18Because the good hand of our God was on us, they brought us a man of insight from the descendants of Mahli son of Levi, son of Israel, and Sherebiah with his sons and brothers, eighteen men;

19and Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the descendants of Merari, with his brothers and their sons, twenty men;

20and from the temple servants, whom David and the officials had given to serve the Levites, 220 temple servants. All of them were designated by name.

21Then I proclaimed a fast there at the Ahava River, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us, our little ones, and all our possessions.

22For I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the way, because we had told the king, “The hand of our God is on all who seek him, for their good, but his power and his anger are against all who forsake him.”

23So we fasted and pleaded with our God about this, and he answered our prayer.

24Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests, along with Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brothers,

25and I weighed out to them the silver, the gold, and the articles, the contribution for the house of our God that the king, his counselors, his officials, and all Israel who were present had offered.

26I weighed out into their hands 650 talents of silver, silver articles weighing one hundred talents, one hundred talents of gold,

27twenty gold bowls worth a thousand darics, and two articles of fine polished bronze, as precious as gold.

28And I said to them, “You are holy to Yahweh, and the articles are holy. The silver and the gold are a freewill offering to Yahweh, the God of your ancestors.

29Guard them carefully until you weigh them out before the leading priests and Levites and the heads of the ancestral houses of Israel in Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of Yahweh.”

30So the priests and the Levites took charge of the silver, the gold, and the articles that had been weighed out, to bring them to Jerusalem, to the house of our God.

31On the twelfth day of the first month we set out from the Ahava River to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he rescued us from the hand of enemies and ambushers along the way.

32So we came to Jerusalem, and we stayed there three days.

33On the fourth day the silver, the gold, and the articles were weighed out in the house of our God into the hands of Meremoth son of Uriah the priest. With him was Eleazar son of Phinehas, and with them were the Levites Jozabad son of Jeshua and Noadiah son of Binnui.

34Everything was counted and weighed, and the total weight was recorded at that time.

35Then the exiles who had come back from the captivity offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel: twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and twelve male goats as a sin offering. All this was a burnt offering to Yahweh.

36They also delivered the king’s orders to the king’s satraps and to the governors of the province Beyond the River, who then supported the people and the house of God.