Nehemiah 7–8

7And now the wall had been rebuilt, the gates had all been put in place, and the temple guards, the members of the sacred choir, and the other Levites had been assigned their work. ²I put two men in charge of governing the city of Jerusalem: my brother Hanani and Hananiah, commanding officer of the fortress. Hananiah was a reliable and God-fearing man without an equal. ³I told them not to have the gates of Jerusalem opened in the morning until well after sunrise and to have them closed and barred before the guards went off duty at sunset. I also told them to appoint guards from among the people who lived in Jerusalem and to assign some of them to specific posts and others to patrol the area round their own houses.

The List of Those Who Returned from Exile

⁴Jerusalem was a large city, but not many people were living in it, and not many houses had been built yet. ⁵God inspired me to assemble the people and their leaders and officials and to check their family records. I located the records of those who had first returned from captivity, and this is the information I found:

⁶Many of the exiles left the province of Babylon and returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own city. Their families had been living in exile in Babylonia ever since King Nebuchadnezzar had taken them there as prisoners. ⁷Their leaders were Zerubbabel, Joshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, and Baanah.

⁸This is the list of the clans of Israel, with the number of those from each clan who returned from exile:

Parosh—2,172;

⁹Shephatiah—372;

¹⁰Arah—652;

¹¹Pahath Moab (descendants of Jeshua and Joab)—2,818;

¹²Elam—1,254;

¹³Zattu—845;

¹⁴Zaccai—760;

¹⁵Binnui—648;

¹⁶Bebai—628;

¹⁷Azgad—2,322;

¹⁸Adonikam—667;

¹⁹Bigvai—2,067;

²⁰Adin—655;

²¹Ater (also called Hezekiah)—98;

²²Hashum—328;

²³Bezai—324;

²⁴Hariph—112;

²⁵Gibeon—95.

²⁶People whose ancestors had lived in the following towns also returned:

Bethlehem and Netophah—188;

²⁷Anathoth—128;

²⁸Beth Azmaveth—42;

²⁹Kiriath Jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth—743;

³⁰Ramah and Geba—621;

³¹Michmash—122;

³²Bethel and Ai—123;

³³The other Nebo—52;

³⁴The other Elam—1,254;

³⁵Harim—320;

³⁶Jericho—345;

³⁷Lod, Hadid, and Ono—721;

³⁸Senaah—3,930.

³⁹This is the list of the priestly clans that returned from exile:

⁴⁰Jedaiah (descendants of Jeshua)—973;

Immer—1,052;

⁴¹Pashhur—1,247;

⁴²Harim—1,017.

⁴³Clans of Levites who returned from exile:

Jeshua and Kadmiel (descendants of Hodaviah)—74;

⁴⁴Temple musicians (descendants of Asaph)—148;

⁴⁵Temple guards (descendants of Shallum, Ater, Talmon, Akkub, Hatita, and Shobai)—138.

^46–56Clans of temple workmen who returned from exile:

Ziha, Hasupha, Tabbaoth,

Keros, Sia, Padon,

Lebana, Hagaba, Shalmai,

Hanan, Giddel, Gahar,

Reaiah, Rezin, Nekoda,

Gazzam, Uzza, Paseah,

Besai, Meunim, Nephushesim,

Bakbuk, Hakupha, Harhur,

Bazlith, Mehida, Harsha,

Barkos, Sisera, Temah,

Neziah, and Hatipha.

^57–59Clans of Solomon’s servants who returned from exile:

Sotai, Sophereth, Perida,

Jaalah, Darkon, Giddel,

Shephatiah, Hattil, Pochereth Hazzebaim, and Amon.

⁶⁰The total number of descendants of the temple workmen and of Solomon’s servants who returned from exile was 392.

^61–62There were 642 belonging to the clans of Delaiah, Tobiah, and Nekoda who returned from the towns of Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer; but they could not prove that they were descendants of Israelites.

^63–64The following priestly clans could find no record to prove their ancestry: Hobaiah, Hakkoz, and Barzillai. (The ancestor of the priestly clan of Barzillai had married a woman from the clan of Barzillai of Gilead and taken the name of his father-in-law’s clan.) Since they were unable to prove who their ancestors were, they were not accepted as priests. ^65*The Jewish governor told them that they could not eat the food offered to God until there was a priest who could use the Urim and Thummim.^m

^66–69Total number of exiles who returned—42,360;

Their male and female servants—7,337;

Male and female musicians—245;

Horses—736;

Mules—245;

Camels—435;

Donkeys—6,720.

^70–72Many of the people contributed to help pay the cost of restoring the Temple:

The governor

8

kilogrammes of gold

50

ceremonial bowls

530

robes for priests

Heads of clans

168

kilogrammes of gold

1,250

kilogrammes of silver

The rest of the people

168

kilogrammes of gold

140

kilogrammes of silver

^73*The priests, the Levites, the temple guards, the musicians, many of the ordinary people, the temple workmen—all the people of Israel—settled in the towns and cities of Judah.

Ezra Reads the Law to the People

8By the seventh month the people of Israel were all settled in their towns. On the first day of that month they all assembled in Jerusalem, in the square just inside the Water Gate. They asked Ezra, the priest and scholar of the Law which the Lord had given Israel through Moses, to get the book of the Law. ²So Ezra brought it to the place where the people had gathered—men, women, and the children who were old enough to understand. ³There in the square by the gate he read the Law to them from dawn until noon, and they all listened attentively.

⁴Ezra was standing on a wooden platform that had been built for the occasion. The following men stood at his right: Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah; and the following stood at his left: Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.

⁵As Ezra stood there on the platform high above the people, they all kept their eyes fixed on him. As soon as he opened the book, they all stood up. ⁶Ezra said, “Praise the Lord, the great God!”

All the people raised their arms in the air and answered, “Amen! Amen!” They knelt in worship, with their faces to the ground.

⁷Then they rose and stood in their places, and the following Levites explained the Law to them: Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, and Pelaiah. ⁸They gave an oral translationⁿ of God’s Law and explained^o it so that the people could understand it.

⁹When the people heard what the Law required, they were so moved that they began to cry. So Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra, the priest and scholar of the Law, and the Levites who were explaining the Law told all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God, so you are not to mourn or cry. ¹⁰Now go home and have a feast. Share your food and wine with those who haven’t enough. Today is holy to our Lord, so don’t be sad. The joy that the Lord gives you will make you strong.”

¹¹The Levites went about calming the people and telling them not to be sad on such a holy day. ¹²So all the people went home and ate and drank joyfully and shared what they had with others, because they understood what had been read to them.

The Festival of Shelters

¹³The next day the heads of the clans, together with the priests and the Levites, went to Ezra to study the teachings of the Law. ^14*They discovered that the Law, which the Lord gave through Moses, ordered the people of Israel to live in temporary shelters during the Festival of Shelters. ^15*So they gave the following instructions and sent them^p all through Jerusalem and the other cities and towns: “Go out to the hills and get branches from pines, olives, myrtles, palms, and other trees to make shelters according to the instructions written in the Law.”

¹⁶So the people got branches and built shelters on the flat roofs of their houses, in their yards, in the temple courtyard, and in the public squares by the Water Gate and by the Ephraim Gate. ¹⁷All the people who had come back from captivity built shelters and lived in them. This was the first time it had been done since the days of Joshua son of Nun, and everybody was excited and happy. ¹⁸From the first day of the festival to the last they read a part of God’s Law every day. They celebrated for seven days, and on the eighth day there was a closing ceremony, as required in the Law.