Ezra 7–10

7^*Now after these things, in the reign of ^aArtaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra ^bthe son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, ²The son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub, ³The son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth, ⁴The son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki, ⁵The son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest: ⁶This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was ^ca ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, ^daccording to the hand of the Lord his God upon him. ⁷And there went up some of the ^echildren of Israel, and of the priests, and ^fthe Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and ^gthe Nethinims, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king. ^8*And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. ⁹For upon the first day of the first month ^†began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, ^haccording to the good hand of his God upon him. ¹⁰For Ezra ⁱhad prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to ^kteach in Israel statutes and judgments. ¹¹Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe, even a scribe of the words of the commandments of the Lord, and of his statutes to Israel.

^12*Artaxerxes, ^lking of kings, ^||unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, perfect peace, ^mand at such a time. ¹³ⁿI make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee. ¹⁴Forasmuch as thou art sent ^†of the king, and of his ^oseven counsellers, to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of thy God which is in thine hand; ¹⁵And to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his ^ocounsellers have freely offered unto the God of Israel, ^pwhose habitation is in Jerusalem, ^16qAnd all the silver and gold that thou canst find in all the province of Babylon, with the freewill offering of the people, and of the priests, ^roffering willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem: ¹⁷That thou mayest buy speedily with this money bullocks, rams, lambs, with their ^smeat offerings and their ^tdrink offerings, and ^uoffer them upon the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem. ¹⁸And whatsoever shall seem good to thee, and to thy brethren, to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, that do after the will of your God. ¹⁹The vessels also that are given thee for the service of the house of thy God, those deliver thou before the God of Jerusalem. ²⁰And whatsoever more shall be needful for the house of thy God, which thou shalt have occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king’s treasure house. ²¹And I, even I Artaxerxes the king, do ⁿmake a decree to all the treasurers which are beyond the river, that whatsoever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, shall require of you, it be done speedily, ²²Unto an hundred talents of silver, and to an hundred ^†measures of wheat, and to an hundred ^xbaths of wine, and to an hundred baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much. ^23†Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be diligently done for the house of the God of heaven: for why should there be wrath against the realm of ^ythe king and his sons? ²⁴Also we certify you, that touching any of the priests and Levites, singers, porters, Nethinims, or ministers of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose ^ztoll, tribute, or custom, upon them. ²⁵And thou, Ezra, after ^athe wisdom of thy God, that is in thine hand, set ^bmagistrates and judges, which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and ^cteach ye them that know them not. ²⁶And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or ^†to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.

^27*dBlessed be the Lord God of our fathers, ^ewhich hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem: ²⁸And ^fhath extended mercy unto me before the king, and his ^gcounsellers, and before all the king’s mighty princes. And I was strengthened as ^hthe hand of the Lord my God was upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me.

8^*These are now the chief of their fathers, and this is the genealogy of them that went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king. ²Of the sons of ^aPhinehas; Gershom: of the sons of ^aIthamar; ^bDaniel: of the sons of David; ^cHattush. ³Of the sons of ^dShechaniah, of the sons of ^ePharosh; Zechariah: and with him were reckoned by genealogy of the males an hundred and fifty. ⁴Of the sons of ^fPahath-moab; Elihoenai the son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males. ⁵Of the sons of ^dShechaniah; the son of Jahaziel, and with him three hundred males. ⁶Of the sons also of ^ffAdin; Ebed the son of Jonathan, and with him fifty males. ⁷And of the sons of ^gElam; Jeshaiah the son of Athaliah, and with him seventy males. ⁸And of the sons of ^hShephatiah; Zebadiah the son of Michael, and with him fourscore males. ⁹Of the sons of ⁱJoab; Obadiah the son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males. ¹⁰And of the sons of Shelomith; the son of Josiphiah, and with him an hundred and threescore males. ¹¹And of the sons of ^kBebai; Zechariah the son of Bebai, and with him twenty and eight males. ¹²And of the sons of ^kAzgad; Johanan ^||the son of Hakkatan, and with him an hundred and ten males. ¹³And of the last sons of ^lAdonikam, whose names are these, Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them threescore males. ¹⁴Of the sons also of ^mBigvai; Uthai, and ^||Zabbud, and with them seventy males.

¹⁵And I gathered them together to the river that runneth to ⁿAhava; and there ^||abode we in tents three days: and I viewed the people, and the priests, and found there none of the ^osons of Levi. ¹⁶Then sent I for Eliezer, for Ariel, for Shemaiah, and for Elnathan, and for Jarib, and for Elnathan, and for Nathan, and for ^pZechariah, and for ^qMeshullam, chief men; also for Joiarib, and for Elnathan, men of understanding. ¹⁷And I sent them with commandment unto Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia, and ^†I told them what they should say unto Iddo, and to his brethren the Nethinims, at the place Casiphia, that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of our God. ¹⁸And ^rby the good hand of our God upon us they brought us a man of understanding, of the sons of ^sMahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel; and ^tSherebiah, with his sons and his brethren, eighteen; ¹⁹And ^uHashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of ^vMerari, his brethren and their sons, twenty; ²⁰Also of the ^wNethinims, whom David and the princes had appointed for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinims: all of them ^xwere expressed by name. ²¹Then I ^yproclaimed a fast there, at the river of ⁿAhava, that we might ^zafflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a ^aright way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. ²²For I was ashamed to require 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, ^bThe hand of our God is upon all them ^cfor good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that ^dforsake him. ²³So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was ^eintreated of us.

²⁴Then I separated twelve of the chief of the priests, ^fSherebiah, ^gHashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them, ²⁵And weighed unto them ^hthe silver, and the gold, and the vessels, even the ⁱoffering of the house of our God, which the king, and his counsellers, and his lords, and all Israel there ^kpresent, had offered: ²⁶I even weighed unto their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels an hundred talents, and of gold an hundred talents; ²⁷Also twenty ^lbasons of gold, of a thousand ^mdrams; and two vessels of ^†fine copper, ^†precious as gold. ²⁸And I said unto them, Ye are ^mholy unto the Lord; the vessels are ⁿholy also; and the silver and the gold are ^ha freewill offering unto the Lord God of your fathers. ²⁹Watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them before the chief of the priests and the Levites, and chief of the fathers of Israel, at Jerusalem, in ^othe chambers of the house of the Lord. ³⁰So took the priests and the Levites the weight of the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem unto the house of our God.

³¹Then we departed from the river of ^pAhava on ^qthe twelfth day of the first month, to go unto Jerusalem: and ^rthe hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy, and of such as lay in wait by the way. ³²And ^swe came to Jerusalem, and abode there three days. ³³Now on the fourth day was the silver and the gold and the vessels ^tweighed in the house of our God by the hand of ^uMeremoth the son of ^xUriah the priest; and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas; and with them was ^yJozabad the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah the son of ^zBinnui, Levites; ³⁴By number and by weight of every one: and all the weight was written at that time. ³⁵Also the children ^aof those that had been carried away, which were come out of the captivity, offered burnt offerings unto the God of Israel, ^btwelve 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 the Lord. ³⁶And they delivered the king’s ^ccommissions unto the king’s ^dlieutenants, and to the ^egovernors on this side the river: and they ^ffurthered the people, and the house of God.

9^*Now when these things were done,…