Ezra 8
1 Now 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:
2 Of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom. Of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel. Of the sons
of David, Hattush.
3 Of the sons of Shecaniah, of the sons of Parosh, Zechariah; and with him were
reckoned by genealogy of the males a hundred and fifty.
4 Of the sons of Pahath-moab, Eliehoenai the son of Zerahiah; and with him two
hundred males.
5 Of the sons of Shecaniah, the son of Jahaziel; and with him three hundred
males.
6 And of the sons of Adin, Ebed the son of Jonathan; and with him fifty males.
7 And of the sons of Elam, Jeshaiah the son of Athaliah; and with him seventy
males.
8 And of the sons of Shephatiah, Zebadiah the son of Michael; and with him
fourscore males.
9 Of the sons of Joab, Obadiah the son of Jehiel; and with him two hundred and
eighteen males.
10 And of the sons of Shelomith, the son of Josiphiah; and with him a hundred
and threescore males.
11 And of the sons of Bebai, Zechariah the son of Bebai; and with him twenty and
eight males.
12 And of the sons of Azgad, Johanan the son of Hakkatan; and with him a hundred
and ten males.
13 And of the sons of Adonikam, [that were] the last; and these are their names:
Eliphelet, Jeuel, and Shemaiah; and with them threescore males.
14 And of the sons of Bigvai, Uthai and Zabbud; and with them seventy males.
15 And 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.
16 Then 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, who were teachers.
17 And I sent them forth unto Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia; and I told
them what they should say unto Iddo, [and] his brethren the Nethinim, at the
place Casiphia, that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of our
God.
18 And 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;
19 and Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brethren and
their sons, twenty;
20 and 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 mentioned by
name.
21 Then 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.
22 For 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.
23 So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was entreated of us.
24 Then I set apart twelve of the chiefs of the priests, even Sherebiah,
Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them,
25 and 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:
26 I weighed into their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver
vessels a hundred talents; of gold a hundred talents;
27 and twenty bowls of gold, of a thousand darics; and two vessels of fine
bright brass, precious as gold.
28 And I said unto them, Ye are holy unto Jehovah, and the vessels are holy; and
the silver and the gold are a freewill-offering unto Jehovah, the God of your
fathers.
29 Watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them before the chiefs of the priests
and the Levites, and the princes of the fathers' [houses] of Israel, at
Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of Jehovah.
30 So 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.
31 Then we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth [day] of 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.
32 And we came to Jerusalem, and abode there three days.
33 And on the fourth day the silver and the gold and the vessels were 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 Levite;
34 the whole by number and by weight: and all the weight was written at that
time.
35 The children of the captivity, that 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 Jehovah.
36 And 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.