1Now these are the heads of their fathers’ houses, and this is the genealogical registration of those who 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 registered by genealogy one hundred and fifty males;
4of the sons of Pahath-moab, Eliehoenai 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 son of Jonathan, and with him fifty males;
7and of the sons of Elam, Jeshaiah son of Athaliah, and with him seventy males;
8and of the sons of Shephatiah, Zebadiah son of Michael, and with him eighty males;
9of the sons of Joab, Obadiah son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males;
10and of the sons of Shelomith, the son of Josiphiah, and with him one hundred and sixty males;
11and of the sons of Bebai, Zechariah son of Bebai, and with him twenty-eight males;
12and of the sons of Azgad, Johanan son of Hakkatan, and with him one hundred and ten males;
13and of the sons of Adonikam, the last ones, and these are their names: Eliphelet, Jeuel, and Shemaiah, and with them sixty males;
14and of the sons of Bigvai, Uthai and Zabbud, and with him seventy males.
15And I gathered them at the river that flows toward Ahava, and we camped there three days. And I observed the people and the priests, but of the sons of Levi I found none there.
16So I sent for Eliezer, for Ariel, for Shemaiah, for Elnathan, for Jarib, for Elnathan, for Nathan, for Zechariah, and for Meshullam, who were leaders, and for Joiarib and for Elnathan, who were teachers.
17And I sent them out to Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia, and I put words in their mouths to speak to Iddo and his kinsmen the temple servants at the place Casiphia, to bring to 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, with his sons and his brothers, eighteen;
19and Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brothers and their sons, twenty;
20and of the temple servants, whom David and the officials had assigned for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty temple servants, all of them designated by name.
21Then I proclaimed a fast there, by the river Ahava, to humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a straight way for us and for our little ones and for all our possessions.
22For I was ashamed to ask the king for an army and horsemen to help us against an enemy on the way, since we had said to the king, ‘The hand of our God is over all who seek him, for good, but his power and his anger are against all who forsake him.’
23So we fasted and sought this from our God, and he let himself be entreated by us.
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.
26I weighed into their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels worth one hundred talents, one hundred talents of gold,
27and twenty gold bowls worth a thousand darics, and two vessels of fine gleaming bronze, as 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 leading priests and the Levites and the leaders of the fathers’ houses of Israel at Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of Yahweh.’
30So the priests and the Levites received the weighed-out silver and 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 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 ambusher along the way.
32And 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 Jozabad son of Jeshua and Noadiah son of Binnui, the Levites,
34by number and by weight for everything; and the whole weight was recorded at that time.
35Those who had come from the captivity, the children of the exile, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel: twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, twelve male goats as a sin offering; the whole was a burnt offering to Yahweh.
36And they delivered the king’s edicts to the king’s satraps and to the governors of the province Beyond the River, and they supported the people and the house of God.
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