Ezra 8

¹These are the heads of their fathers’ houses, and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylonia, in the reign of Ar-ta-xerxʹes the king: ²Of the sons of Phinʹehas, Gershom. Of the sons of Ithʹamar, Daniel. Of the sons of David, Hattush, ³of the sons of Shecaniʹah. Of the sons of Parosh, Zechariʹah, with whom were registered one hundred and fifty men. ⁴Of the sons of Paʹhath-moʹab, Eli-e-ho-eʹnai the son of Zerahiʹah, and with him two hundred men. ⁵Of the sons of Zattu, Shecaniʹah the son of Jahaʹziel, and with him three hundred men. ⁶Of the sons of Adin, Ebed the son of Jonathan, and with him fifty men. ⁷Of the sons of Elam, Jeshaiʹah the son of Athaliʹah, and with him seventy men. ⁸Of the sons of Shephatiʹah, Zebadiʹah the son of Michael, and with him eighty men. ⁹Of the sons of Joʹab, Obadiʹah the son of Jehiʹel, and with him two hundred and eighteen men. ¹⁰Of the sons of Bani, Sheloʹmith the son of Josiphiʹah, and with him a hundred and sixty men. ¹¹Of the sons of Beʹbai, Zechariʹah, the son of Beʹbai, and with him twenty-eight men. ¹²Of the sons of Azgad, Johaʹnan the son of Hakʹkatan, and with him a hundred and ten men. ¹³Of the sons of Adoniʹkam, those who came later, their names being Eliphʹelet, Jeuʹel, and Shemaiʹah, and with them sixty men. ¹⁴Of the sons of Bigʹvai, Uthai and Zaccur, and with them seventy men.

¹⁵I gathered them to the river that runs to Ahaʹva, and there we encamped three days. As I reviewed the people and the priests, I found there none of the sons of Levi. ¹⁶Then I sent for Elieʹzer, Ariel, Shemaiʹah, Elnaʹthan, Jarib, Elnaʹthan, Nathan, Zechariʹah, and Meshulʹlam, leading men, and for Joiʹarib and Elnaʹthan, who were men of insight, ¹⁷and sent them to Iddo, the leading man at the place Casiphiʹa, telling them what to say to Iddo and his brethren the temple servants at the place Casiphiʹa, namely, to send us ministers for the house of our God. ¹⁸And by the good hand of our God upon us, they brought us a man of discretion, of the sons of Mahli the son of Levi, son of Israel, namely Sherebiʹah with his sons and kinsmen, eighteen; ¹⁹also Hashabiʹah and with him Jeshaiʹah of the sons of Merarʹi, with his kinsmen and their sons, twenty; ²⁰besides two hundred and twenty of the temple servants, whom David and his officials had set apart to attend the Levites. These were all mentioned by name.

²¹Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahaʹva, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a straight way for ourselves, our children, and all our goods. ²²For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way; since we had told the king, “The hand of our God is for good upon all that seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all that forsake him.” ²³So we fasted and besought our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.

²⁴Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests: Sherebiʹah, Hashabiʹah, and ten of their kinsmen with them. ²⁵And I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the vessels, the offering for the house of our God which the king and his counselors and his lords and all Israel there present had offered; ²⁶I weighed out into their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels worth a hundred talents, and a hundred talents of gold, ²⁷twenty bowls of gold worth a thousand darics, and two vessels of fine bright bronze as precious as gold. ²⁸And I said to them, “You are holy to the Lord, and the vessels are holy; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the Lord, the God of your fathers. ²⁹Guard them and keep them until you weigh them before the chief priests and the Levites and the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel at Jerusalem, within the chambers of the house of the Lord.” ³⁰So the priests and the Levites took over the weight of the silver and the gold and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem, to the house of our God.

³¹Then we departed from the river Ahaʹva on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem; the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes by the way. ³²We came to Jerusalem, and there we remained three days. ³³On the fourth day, within the house of our God, the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed into the hands of Merʹemoth the priest, son of Uriʹah, and with him was Eleaʹzar the son of Phinʹehas, and with them were the Levites, Joʹzabad the son of Jeshua and No-adiʹah the son of Binʹnui. ³⁴The whole was counted and weighed, and the weight of everything was recorded.

³⁵At that time those who had come from captivity, the returned exiles, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel, twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and as a sin offering twelve he-goats; all this was a burnt offering to the Lord. ³⁶They also delivered the king’s commissions to the king’s satraps and to the governors of the province Beyond the River; and they aided the people and the house of God.