1 Esdras 8

1And after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of the Persians, Ezra son of Azariah, son of Zechariah, son of Chelkiah, son of Shallum, came up.

2son of Saddoulouk, son of Acheitob, son of Amartheios, son of Ozeias, son of Bokka, son of Abeisai, son of Phinees, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the chief priest.

3This Ezra went up from Babylon, being a skillful scribe in the law of Moses that had been given by the God of Israel,

4And the king gave him honor, because he had found favor before him in regard to all his offices.

5And some of the sons of Israel, and of the priests, Levites, temple singers, gatekeepers, and temple servants, went up to Jerusalem,

6In the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes, in the fifth month—they arrived at Jerusalem; for they had set out from Babylon on the new moon of the first month, and they came to Jerusalem according to the prosperity of the journey given to them by the Lord upon him.

7For Apsaras had great learning, so as to leave out nothing from the law of the Lord and from the commandments, teaching all Israel the statutes and the judgments.

8A copy of the document presented by King Artaxerxes to Ezra the priest and reader of the law of the Lord is set out below:

9King Artaxerxes to Ezra the priest and reader of the law of the Lord, greetings.

10And having judged what is humane, I ordered that those of the nation of the Jews who are willing, and of their own choice, and the priests and the Levites and these others in our kingdom, should go with you to Jerusalem.

11Therefore, let all who are so minded set out together, just as it has been decided by me and my seven friends who are counselors;

12so that they may inspect Judea and Jerusalem, according to the law of the Lord that is in your hand,

13and to bring to Jerusalem gifts for the Lord, which I and my friends have vowed, and all the gold and silver that may be found in the land of Babylonia for the Lord in Jerusalem,

14together with what was freely given by the nation for the temple of their Lord in Jerusalem, and the gold and silver to be gathered for bulls and rams and lambs and what goes with them,

15so as to bring sacrifices upon the altar of their Lord, the one in Jerusalem.

16And whatever you and your brothers wish to do with the silver and gold, carry it out according to the will of your God.

17And concerning your holy vessels that are being given for the use of the house of your God in Jerusalem,

18And whatever else may come up as a need for the house of your God, you shall give from the royal treasury.

19And I, King Artaxerxes, have given orders to the treasurers of Syria and Phoenicia, that whatever Ezra the priest and reader of the law of God Most High may send for, they are to give him carefully, up to one hundred talents of silver,

20Likewise, up to one hundred cors of wheat and one hundred measures of wine.

21Let it be done according to the law of God for God Most High, so that wrath may not come upon the kingdom of the king and his sons.

22And it is also declared to you that no tax or other burden is to be imposed on any of the priests, Levites, temple singers, gatekeepers, temple servants, or workers of this temple, and that no one is to have authority to impose it on them.

23And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God, appoint judges and magistrates, so that they may judge throughout all Syria and Phoenicia all those who know the law of your God; and you shall teach those who do not know it.

24And all who transgress both the law of your God and the king’s law shall be diligently punished, whether by death or by punishment, by a fine of silver or by confiscation.

25Blessed be the Lord alone, who put these things into the heart of the king,

26and he honored me before the kings and all his friends and nobles.

27And I took courage according to the help of the Lord my God, and I gathered from Israel men to go up with me.

28And these are the leaders according to their fathers’ houses and their divisions, who went up with me from Babylon in the reign of Artaxerxes the king.

29From the sons of Phoros, Tarosotomos; from the sons of Ietamar, Gamelos; from the sons of David,

30Of the sons of Pharez: Zechariah, and with him, according to the record, one hundred fifty men.

31From the sons of Pahath-moab, Eliaonias son of Zareou, and with him two hundred men;

32From the sons of Zathoes: Eiechonias son of Jethel, and with him two hundred men; from the sons of Adin: Obeth son of Jonathan, and with him two hundred fifty men.

33From the sons of Lam: Esias son of Gotholias, and with him seventy men.

34From the sons of Sophotius: Zaraias son of Michael, and with him seventy men.

35From the sons of Joab: Abadias son of Iezelus, and with him two hundred twelve men.

36From the sons of Bani: Salimoth son of Josaphias, and with him one hundred sixty men;

37From the sons of Baer: Zechariah son of Bemaiah, and with him twenty-eight men.

38the sons of Astad: Joanes son of Akatan, and with him one hundred ten men;

39From the sons of Adoniakim, the last ones, and these are their names: Eliphala son of Geuel, and Shemaiah,

40and with them, seventy men.

41From the sons of Banai: Outu son of Istakalkou, and with him seventy men.

42And after gathering them to the river called the River, we camped there for three days, and I examined them.

43And from the priests and from the Levites I found no one there.

44I sent for Eleazar, Iduel, Maasman, Enaathan, Shemaiah, Jorib, Nathan, Ennathan, Zechariah, and Mesholabon, the leaders and men of understanding,

45And I told them to go to Laddaeus, the leader at the place of the treasury,

46having commanded them to speak with Lodaios and his brothers and the treasurers in that place, to send us those who would serve as priests in the house of our Lord,

47a man of understanding, from the sons of Mooli, son of Levi, son of Israel—Asebebias, and his sons and brothers, ten;

48from the sons of Hanunai and their sons, twenty men;

49And from the temple servants whom David and the leaders had assigned to the service of the Levites: temple servants, two hundred twenty; all of them were listed by name.

50And there I proclaimed a fast before our Lord for the young men,

51to seek from him a prosperous journey for us and for our children and livestock.

52For I was ashamed to ask for horsemen and foot soldiers as an escort for safety against those hostile to us.

53For we had told the king that the strength of our Lord would be with those who seek him for every restoration.

54And again we prayed to our Lord about all these things, and we found him favorable.

55And I set apart twelve men from the leaders of the priests, and Eserebias and Asoamias,

56And with them, from among their brothers, ten men. And I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the holy vessels of the house of our Lord, which the king and his counselors and the nobles and all Israel had given as a gift.

57And he handed over to them, after weighing it out, six hundred fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels worth a hundred talents, and a hundred talents of gold, and twenty golden bowls, and ten vessels of fine gleaming bronze.

58And I said to them, “You also are holy to the Lord, and the vessels are holy, and the silver and the gold are a vow offering to the Lord, the Lord of our fathers.”

59Stay awake and guard them until you hand them over to the chiefs of the priests and the Levites and to the heads of the fathers’ houses of Israel in Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of our Lord.

60And the priests and the Levites who had received the silver and the gold and the vessels brought them to Jerusalem, into the temple of the Lord.

61And after setting out from the place Thera on the twelfth day of the first month, they came to Jerusalem by the mighty hand of our Lord that was upon us; and he rescued us from every enemy from the outset, and they came to Jerusalem.

62And when the third day came there, the silver and the gold were weighed out and handed over in the house of the Lord to Marmothi son of Ourias the priest, and with him was Eleazar son of Phinehas; and with them were Josabees son of Jesous and Moeth son of Sabannus, the Levites, by number and by weight, all of it; and the whole weight was recorded at that very time.

63And those who had come from the captivity offered sacrifices to the Lord, the God of Israel: ninety-six rams, seventy-six lambs, and twelve male goats for a peace offering; all of them as a sacrifice to the Lord.

64And they delivered the king’s decrees to the royal stewards and to the governors of Syria and Phoenicia, and they honored the nation and the sanctuary of the Lord.

65And when these things had been completed, the leaders came to me, saying,

66The rulers and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the foreign nations of the land, with their uncleannesses—from the Canaanites and Hittites and Perizzites and Jebusites and Moabites and Egyptians and Edomites.

67They took some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, and the holy seed was mixed with the foreign nations of the land; and the leaders and the nobles shared in this lawlessness from the beginning of the matter.

68And as soon as I heard these things, I tore my garments and the holy robe, and I pulled out hair from my head and beard, and I sat down stunned and deeply grieved.

69And all who were ever stirred by the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, gathered to me while I was mourning over the lawlessness, and I sat grieved until the evening sacrifice.

70And rising from the fasting, with his garments and the holy robe torn, he bent his knees and stretched out his hands to the Lord, saying,

71Lord, I am ashamed and disgraced before your face.

72For our sins have multiplied beyond our heads, and our offenses have risen up to heaven.

73From the times of our fathers, we have been in great sin until this day.

74And because of our sins and the sins of our fathers, we were handed over, together with our brothers, our kings, and our priests, to the kings of the earth, to the sword and captivity and plundering with shame, to this present day.

75And now, for a little while, mercy has come to us from the Lord, the Lord, to leave us a root and a name in this holy place,

76and to reveal a lamp for us in the house of our Lord, to give us food in the time of our slavery; and while we were enslaved, we were not forsaken

77from our Lord,

78but he has shown us favor before the kings of Persia, to give us sustenance and to glorify our sanctuary and to raise up desolate Zion, to give us a stronghold in Judea and Jerusalem.

79And now what shall we say, Lord, having these things? They have transgressed your commandments, which you gave by the hand of your servants the prophets.

80saying that the land into which you are entering to inherit is a land defiled by the defilement of the foreigners of the land, and they have filled it with their uncleanness.

81And now do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons,

82and do not take their daughters for your sons, and do not seek peace with them all your days, so that, having become strong, you may eat the good things of the land and inherit it

83to your sons forever.

84And everything that happens to us comes because of our evil deeds and our great sins.

85For you, Lord, who have lightened our sins, have given us such a root; yet we have turned back to transgress your law by mingling with the uncleanness of the nations of the land.

86Were you not angry with us, to destroy us, leaving no root or seed or name of ours?

87Lord of Israel, you are true; for we have been left as a root to this day.

88Look, we are before you in our lawless deeds, for it is no longer possible to stand before you because of these things.

89And while Ezra was praying and making confession, weeping as he lay prostrate before the temple, a very great crowd gathered to him from Jerusalem—men and women and young men—for there was great weeping among the multitude.

90And Jechonias son of Jeelus, of the sons of Israel, cried out and said to Ezra, “We have sinned against the Lord, and foreign women from the nations of the land have dwelt among us; and now there is still hope for all Israel.”

91In this matter let there be for us an oath to the Lord, to send away all our wives from among the foreigners, together with their children, as it has been decided by you, and by all who obey the law of the Lord.

92Rise up and carry it through, for the matter is yours, and we are with you; be strong and act.