The Exiles Who Returned with Ezra
And these are the heads of their fathers’ houses, and the enrollment in the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylon in the reign of Artaxerxes the king:
Of the sons of Phinehas: Gershom. Of the sons of Ithamar: Daniel. Of the sons of David: Hattush,
of the sons of Shecaniah. Of the sons of Parosh: Zechariah, and with him were enrolled in the genealogy a hundred and fifty males.
Of the sons of Pahath-moab: Eliehoenai the son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males.
Of the sons of Zattu: Shecaniah the son of Jahaziel, and with him three hundred males.
And of the sons of Adin: Ebed the son of Jonathan, and with him fifty males.
And of the sons of Elam: Jeshaiah the son of Athaliah, and with him seventy males.
And of the sons of Shephatiah: Zebadiah the son of Michael, and with him eighty males.
Of the sons of Joab: Obadiah the son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males.
And of the sons of Bani: Shelomith the son of Josiphiah, and with him a hundred and sixty males.
And of the sons of Bebai: Zechariah the son of Bebai, and with him twenty-eight males.
And of the sons of Azgad: Johanan the son of Hakkatan, and with him a hundred and ten males.
And of the sons of Adonikam, the last ones — and these are their names: Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them sixty males.
And of the sons of Bigvai: Uthai and Zaccur, and with him seventy males.
Ezra Sends for the Levites
And I gathered them to the river that comes to Ahava, and we camped there three days. And I looked carefully at the people and at the priests, and I found none of the sons of Levi there.
Then I sent for Eliezer, for Ariel, for Shemaiah, and for Elnathan, and for Jarib, and for Elnathan, and for Nathan, and for Zechariah, and for Meshullam, heads — and for Joiarib and for Elnathan, men of understanding.
And I commanded them to Iddo, the head at the place Casiphia; and I put words in their mouth to speak to Iddo, his brother, the temple servants at the place Casiphia, to bring us ministers for the house of our God.
And they brought us, according to the good hand of our God upon us, a man of insight, of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel — and Sherebiah, with his sons and his brothers, eighteen;
and Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah, of the sons of Merari, his brothers and their sons, twenty;
and of the temple servants, whom David and the officers had given for the service of the Levites — two hundred and twenty temple servants, all of them designated by name.
Fasting for Protection
Then I called a fast there, at the river Ahava, to humble ourselves before our God, to ask of him a straight way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our goods.
For I was ashamed to ask of the king a force and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the way, because we had said to the king, saying, “The hand of our God is on all who seek him, for good; but his strength and his anger are against all who abandon him.”
So we fasted and asked of our God concerning this, and he was entreated for us.
Priests to Guard the Offerings
Then I set apart twelve of the officers of the priests — Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and with them ten of their brothers —
and I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the vessels, the contribution for the house of our God that the king and his counselors and his officers and all Israel who were present had lifted up.
And I weighed out into their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels worth a hundred talents, a hundred talents of gold,
and twenty bowls of gold worth a thousand darics, and two vessels of fine gleaming bronze, precious as gold.
And I said to them, “You are holy to the LORD, and the vessels are holy; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the LORD, the God of your fathers.
Watch, and keep them, until you weigh them out before the officers of the priests and the Levites and the officers of the fathers’ houses of Israel, in Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the LORD.”
And the priests and the Levites received the weight of the silver and the gold and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem, to the house of our God.
Then 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 palm of the enemy and the ambusher on the way.
Arrival in Jerusalem
And we came to Jerusalem, and stayed there three days.
And 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 the son of Uriah the priest — and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas, and with them Jozabad the son of Jeshua and Noadiah the son of Binnui, the Levites —
by number, by weight, for everything; and all the weight was written down at that time.
Those who came out of 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, twelve male goats as a sin offering — all of it a burnt offering to the LORD.
And they gave the king’s laws to the king’s satraps and the governors of Beyond the River; and they lifted up the people and the house of God.