Ezra 8

¹ These, with their genealogies, are the heads of families who set out from Babylon with me in the reign of King Artaxerxes:

² Of the sons of Phinehas: Gershom; of the sons of Ithamar: Daniel; of the sons of David: Hattush

³ son of Shecaniah; of the sons of Parosh: Zechariah, with whom one hundred and fifty males were registered;

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

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

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

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

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

⁹ of the sons of Joab: Obadiah son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males;

¹⁰ of the sons of Bani: Shelomith son of Josiphiah, and with him a hundred and sixty males;

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

¹² of the sons of Azgad: Johanan son of Hakkatan, and with him a hundred and ten males;

¹³ of the sons of Adonikam: the younger sons, whose names are: Eliphelet, Jeiel and Shemaiah, and with them sixty males;

¹⁴ and of the sons of Bigvai: Uthai son of Zabud, and with him seventy males.

¹⁵ I assembled them near the river that runs to Ahava, where we camped for three days. Observing them I saw laymen and priests, but no Levites.

¹⁶ So I dispatched Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah and Meshullam, men of judgement,

¹⁷ and sent them to Iddo, the leading man in the region of Casiphia; I told them the words they were to say to Iddo and his kinsmen, living in the region of Casiphia, to provide us with servants for the Temple of our God.

¹⁸ Then, thanks to the kindly favour of our God which was with us, they sent us a capable man, of the sons of Mahli son of Levi son of Israel, Sherebiah with his sons and kinsmen: eighteen men;

¹⁹ also Hashabiah and with him his brother Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, as well as their sons: twenty men;

²⁰ and of the oblates whom David and his notables had assigned to serve the Levites: two hundred and twenty oblates. All were registered by name.

²¹ There, beside the river of Ahava, I proclaimed a fast: we were to humble ourselves before our God and pray to him for a successful journey for us, our children and our belongings;

²² since I should have been ashamed to ask the king for an armed guard and cavalry to protect us from an enemy on the road, for we had already told the king, ‘The hand of our God is held out in blessing over all who seek him, his power and his anger over all who turn away from him’.

²³ So we fasted, pleading with our God for this favour, and he answered our prayers.

²⁴ I chose twelve of the leading priests, and then Sherebiah and Hashabiah and with them ten of their kinsmen;

²⁵ I weighed out for them the silver, the gold and the vessels, the offerings that the king, his counsellors, his nobles and all the Israelites present had presented for the Temple of our God.

²⁶ So I weighed out and handed over to them six hundred and fifty talents of silver, one hundred silver vessels worth two talents, one hundred talents of gold,

²⁷ twenty golden bowls worth a thousand darics and two vessels of fine gilded bronze which were as valuable as gold.

²⁸ I told them, ‘You are consecrated to Yahweh; these vessels are sacred; the silver and gold are voluntary offerings to Yahweh, the God of your ancestors.

²⁹ Take charge of them and guard them until you weigh them before the leading priests, the Levites and the heads of families of Israel in Jerusalem in the chambers of the Temple of Yahweh.’

³⁰ The priests and Levites then took charge of the silver, the gold and the vessels thus weighed, to take them to Jerusalem to the Temple of our God.

³¹ On the twelfth day of the first month we left the river of Ahava to go to Jerusalem; the favour of our God was with us and protected us on the road from enemies and thieves.

³² We arrived in Jerusalem and stayed there, resting, for three days.

³³ On the fourth day the silver, the gold and the vessels were weighed in the Temple of our God and handed over to the priest Meremoth son of Uriah and, with him, Eleazar son of Phinehas; with them were the Levites Jozabad son of Jeshua and Noadiah son of Binnui.

³⁴ Number and weight, all was there. The total weight was put on record. At that time

³⁵ those who came back from captivity, the exiles, offered holocausts to the God of Israel: twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-two lambs, twelve he-goats for sin; the whole as a holocaust to Yahweh.

³⁶ The king’s instructions were notified to the king’s satraps and the governors of Transeuphrates, who then assisted the people and the Temple of God.