Ezra 8

1These are the heads of their fathers’ houses, and their genealogy, of those who went up with me from Babylon in the reign of King Artaxerxes:

2from the sons of Phinehas, Gershom; from the sons of Ithamar, Daniel; from the sons of David, Hattush.

3From the sons of Shecaniah, from the sons of Parosh: Zechariah, and with him were enrolled by genealogy 150 males.

4From the sons of Pahath-moab: Eliehoenai son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males.

5From the sons of Shecaniah, the son of Jahaziel, and with him three hundred males.

6And from the sons of Adin: Ebed son of Jonathan, and with him fifty males.

7And from the sons of Elam: Jeshaiah son of Athaliah, and with him seventy males.

8And from the sons of Shephatiah: Zebadiah son of Michael, and with him eighty males.

9From the sons of Joab: Obadiah son of Jehiel, and with him 218 males.

10And from the sons of Shelomith, the son of Josiphiah, and with him 160 males.

11And from the sons of Bebai: Zechariah son of Bebai, and with him twenty-eight males.

12And from the sons of Azgad: Johanan son of Hakkatan, and with him 110 males.

13And from the sons of Adonikam, the last ones, and these were their names: Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them sixty males.

14And from the sons of Bigvai: Uthai and Zabbud, and with them seventy males.

15I gathered them to the river that comes to Ahava, and we camped there three days. Then I examined the people and the priests, but I found none of the sons of Levi there.

16Then I sent for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, heads, and for Joiarib and Elnathan, men of understanding.

17And I sent them to Iddo, the chief at the place Casiphia, and I put in their mouths words to speak to Iddo and his brothers, the temple servants at the place Casiphia, to bring us ministers for the house of our God.

18And by the good hand of our God upon us, they brought to us a man of insight from the sons of Mahli son of Levi, son of Israel—namely Sherebiah, and his sons and his brothers, eighteen.

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

20And from the temple servants whom David and the officials had assigned to the service of the Levites, there were 220 temple servants; all of them were designated by name.

21Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the Ahava River, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a straight path for us, for our little ones, and for all our possessions.

22For I was ashamed to ask the king for troops and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the way, because we had said to the king, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, but his strength and his anger are against all who forsake him.”

23So we fasted and sought our God concerning this, and he answered our plea.

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

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

26And I weighed out into their hands six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and one hundred talents worth of silver vessels, and one hundred talents of gold.

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

28And I said to them, “You are holy to Yahweh, and the vessels are holy; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to Yahweh, the God of your fathers.”

29Be watchful and guard them until you weigh them out before the chief priests and the Levites and the heads of the fathers’ houses of Israel in Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of Yahweh.

30So the priests and the Levites received the weighed amount of the silver, the gold, and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem, to the house of our God.

31Then we set out from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month to go to Jerusalem, and the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the ambushes along the way.

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

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

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

35Those who had come from the captivity, the sons of the exile, 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 of it was a burnt offering to Yahweh.

36And they delivered the king’s decrees to the king’s satraps and the governors Beyond the River, and they supported the people and the house of God.