Ezra 8

Heads of Families Who Returned with Ezra

8These are the heads of their fathers’ houses, and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of King Artaxerxes: ²of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom; of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel; of the sons of David, ^aHattush; ³of the sons of Shecaniah, of the sons of ^bParosh, Zechariah; and registered with him were one hundred and fifty males; ⁴of the sons of ^cPahath-Moab, Eliehoenai the son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males; ⁵of ¹the sons of Shechaniah, Ben-Jahaziel, and with him three hundred males; ⁶of the sons of Adin, Ebed the son of Jonathan, and with him fifty males; ⁷of the sons of Elam, Jeshaiah the son of Athaliah, and with him seventy males; ⁸of the sons of Shephatiah, Zebadiah the son of Michael, and with him eighty males; ⁹of the sons of Joab, Obadiah the son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males; ¹⁰of ²the sons of Shelomith, Ben-Josiphiah, and with him one hundred and sixty males; ¹¹of the sons of ^dBebai, Zechariah the son of Bebai, and with him twenty-eight males; ¹²of the sons of Azgad, Johanan ³the son of Hakkatan, and with him one hundred and ten males; ¹³of the last sons of Adonikam, whose names are these—Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah—and with them sixty males; ¹⁴also of the sons of Bigvai, Uthai and ⁴Zabbud, and with them seventy males.

Servants for the Temple

¹⁵Now I gathered them by the river that flows to Ahava, and we camped there three days. And I looked among the people and the priests, and found none of the ^esons of Levi there. ¹⁶Then I sent for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and ^fMeshullam, leaders; also for Joiarib and Elnathan, men of understanding. ¹⁷And I gave them a command for Iddo the chief man at the place Casiphia, and ⁵I told them what they should say ⁶to Iddo and his brethren the Nethinim at the place Casiphia—that they should bring us servants for the house of our God. ¹⁸Then, by the good hand of our God upon us, they ^gbrought us a man of understanding, of the sons of Mahli the son of Levi, the son of Israel, namely Sherebiah, with his sons and brothers, eighteen men; ¹⁹and ^hHashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brothers and their sons, twenty men; ²⁰ⁱalso of the Nethinim, whom David and the leaders had appointed for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinim. All of them were designated by name.

Fasting and Prayer for Protection

²¹Then I ^jproclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might ^khumble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the ^lright way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. ²²For ^mI was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, ⁿ“The hand of our God is upon all those for ^ogood who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are ^pagainst all those who ^qforsake Him.” ²³So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He ^ranswered our prayer.

Gifts for the Temple

²⁴And I separated twelve of the leaders of the priests—Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them—²⁵and weighed out to them ^sthe silver, the gold, and the articles, the offering for the house of our God which the king and his counselors and his princes, and all Israel who were present, had offered. ²⁶I weighed into their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver, silver articles weighing one hundred talents, one hundred talents of gold, ²⁷twenty gold basins worth a thousand drachmas, and two vessels of fine polished bronze, precious as gold. ²⁸And I said to them, “You are ^tholy ⁷to the Lord; the articles are ^uholy also; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the Lord God of your fathers. ²⁹Watch and keep them until you weigh them before the leaders of the priests and the Levites and ^vheads of the fathers’ houses of Israel in Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the Lord.” ³⁰So the priests and the Levites received the silver and the gold and the articles by weight, to bring them to Jerusalem to the house of our God.

The Return to Jerusalem

³¹Then we departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem. And ^wthe hand of our God was upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambush along the road. ³²So we ^xcame to Jerusalem, and stayed there three days.

³³Now on the fourth day the silver and the gold and the articles were ^yweighed in the house of our God by the hand of Meremoth the son of Uriah the priest, and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas; with them were the Levites, ^zJozabad the son of Jeshua and Noadiah the son of Binnui, ³⁴with the number and weight of everything. All the weight was written down at that time.

³⁵The children of those who had been ^acarried away captive, who had come from the captivity, ^boffered burnt offerings to the God of Israel: twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and twelve male goats as a sin offering. All this was a burnt offering to the Lord.

³⁶And they delivered the king’s ^corders to the king’s satraps and the governors in the region beyond ⁸the River. So they gave support to the people and the ⁹house of God.