Ezra 8

¹Now these are the heads of their fathers’ houses, and this is the genealogy of them that went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king. ²Of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom: of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel: of the sons of David, Hattush. ³Of the sons of Shecaniah; of the sons of Parosh, Zechariah: and with him were reckoned by genealogy of the males an hundred and fifty. ⁴Of the sons of Pahath-moab, Eliehoenai the son of Zerahiah; and with him two hundred males. ⁵Of the sons of Shecaniah, the son of Jahaziel; and with him three hundred males. ⁶And of the sons of Adin, Ebed the son of Jonathan; and with him fifty males. ⁷And of the sons of Elam, Jeshaiah the son of Athaliah; and with him seventy males. ⁸And of the sons of Shephatiah, Zebadiah the son of Michael; and with him fourscore males. ⁹Of the sons of Joab, Obadiah the son of Jehiel; and with him two hundred and eighteen males. ¹⁰And of the sons of Shelomith, the son of Josiphiah; and with him an hundred and threescore males. ¹¹And of the sons of Bebai, Zechariah the son of Bebai; and with him twenty and eight males. ¹²And of the sons of Azgad, Johanan the son of Hakkatan; and with him an hundred and ten males. ¹³And of the sons of Adonikam, that werethe last; and these are their names, Eliphelet, Jeuel, and Shemaiah, and with them threescore males. ¹⁴And of the sons of Bigvai, Uthai and Zabbud; and with them seventy males. ¹⁵And I gathered them together to the river that runneth to Ahava; and there we encamped three days: and I viewed the people, and the priests, and found there none of the sons of Levi. ¹⁶Then sent I for Eliezer, for Ariel, for Shemaiah, and for Elnathan, and for Jarib, and for Elnathan, and for Nathan, and for Zechariah, and for Meshullam, chief men; also for Joiarib, and for Elnathan, which were teachers. ¹⁷And I sent them forth unto Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia; and I told them what they should say unto Iddo, andhis brethren the Nethinim, at the place Casiphia, that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of our God. ¹⁸And according to the good hand of our God upon us they brought us a man of discretion, of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel; and Sherebiah, with his sons and his brethren, eighteen; ¹⁹and Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brethren and their sons, twenty; ²⁰and of the Nethinim, whom David and the princes had given for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinim: all of them were expressed by name. ²¹Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek of him a straight way, for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. ²²For I was ashamed to ask of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them that seek him, for good; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him. ²³So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was entreated of us. ²⁴Then I separated twelve of the chiefs of the priests, even Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them, ²⁵and weighed unto them the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, even the offering for the house of our God, which the king, and his counsellors, and his princes, and all Israel there present, had offered: ²⁶I even weighed into their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels an hundred talents; of gold an hundred talents; ²⁷and twenty bowls of gold, of a thousand darics; and two vessels of fine bright brass, precious as gold. ²⁸And I said unto them, Ye are holy unto the LORD, and the vessels are holy; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering unto the LORD, the God of your fathers. ²⁹Watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them before the chiefs of the priests and the Levites, and the princes of the fathers’ housesof Israel, at Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the LORD. ³⁰So the priests and the Levites received the weight of the silver and the gold, and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem unto the house of our God. ³¹Then we departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth dayof the first month, to go unto Jerusalem: and the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the lier in wait by the way. ³²And we came to Jerusalem, and abode there three days. ³³And on the fourth day was the silver and the gold and the vessels weighed in the house of our God into the hand of Meremoth the son of Uriah the priest; and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas; and with them was Jozabad the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah the son of Binnui, the Levites; ³⁴the whole by number and by weight: and all the weight was written at that time. ³⁵The children of the captivity, which were come out of exile, offered burnt offerings unto the God of Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel, ninety and six rams, seventy and seven lambs, twelve he-goats for a sin offering: all this was a burnt offering unto the LORD. ³⁶And they delivered the king’s commissions unto the king’s satraps, and to the governors beyond the river: and they furthered the people and the house of God.