Ezra 8

1 These are the leaders of their families, the ones who led the way up with me in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Babylon: 2 from the sons of Phinehas, Gershom; from the sons of Ithamar, Daniel; from the sons of David, Hattush; [a]

3 from the sons of Shecaniah, from the sons of Parosh, Zechariah, and with him a company of a hundred and fifty; 4 from the sons of Pahath-moab, Eliehoenai son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males; [b] 5 and from the sons of Zattu, Shecaniah son of Jahaziel, and with him three hundred males; 6 and from the sons of Adin, Ebed son of Jonathan, and with him fifty males; 7 and from the sons of Elam, Jeshaiah son of Athaliah, and with him seventy males;

8 and from the sons of Shephatiah, Zebadiah son of Michael, and with him eighty males; 9 and from the sons of Joab, Obadiah son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males; 10 and from the sons of Bani, Shelomith son of Josiphiah, and with him a hundred and sixty males; 11 and from the sons of Bebai, Zechariah son of Bebai, and with him seventy-eight males; [c] 12 and from the sons of Azgad, Johanan son of Hakkatan, and with him a hundred and ten males; 13 and from the sons of Adonikam, the last ones, and these are their names: Eliphelet, Jehiel and Shemaiah, and with them sixty males; [d] 14 and from the sons of Bigvai, Uthai, and with him seventy males. [e]

15 And I gathered them at the river that runs toward Ahava, and we camped there three days. And I looked closely at the people and at the priests, and I found none of the sons of Levi there. [f] 16 So I sent men to Eleazar, to Ariel, to Shemaiah, and to Alonam, and to Jarib, and to Elnathan, and to Nathan, and to Zechariah, and to Meshullam, and to Joiarib and to Elnathan, men of understanding; 17 and I sent them out to the leader, with the silver of the place, and I put words in their mouth to speak to their brothers the temple servants, with the silver of the place, so that they would bring us singers for the house of our God. [g]

18 And they came to us, since the good hand of our God was on us: a man of understanding from the sons of Mahli son of Levi son of Israel; and at the start his sons and his brothers came, eighteen of them; [h] 19 and Hashabiah, and Hoshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brothers and their sons, twenty; [i] 20 and from the temple servants, whom David and the leaders had given for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty temple servants — all of them gathered by name.

21 And I called a fast there, at the river Ahava, so that we would humble ourselves before our God and seek from him a straight road for us and for our children and for all our property. 22 For I was ashamed to ask the king for troops and horsemen to save us from the enemy on the road, because we had said to the king, “The hand of our God is on all who seek him, for good; and his power and his anger are on all who forsake him.” 23 So we fasted and asked this of our God, and he listened to us.

24 And I set apart twelve of the leaders of the priests — Seraiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brothers with them — [j] 25 and I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the vessels of the firstfruits of the house of our God, which the king and his counselors and his leaders and all Israel who were there had offered. 26 I weighed into their hands about twenty-four tons of silver, and a hundred silver vessels, and about three and three-quarter tons of gold, [k] 27 and twenty gold bowls for the journey, weighing about nineteen pounds in all, and vessels of fine polished bronze, choice pieces, as desirable as gold. [l]

28 And I said to them, “You are holy to the Lord, and the vessels are holy, and the silver and the gold are gifts of their own choice to the Lord, the God of your fathers. 29 Stay awake and keep watch over them, until you stand before the leaders of the priests and the Levites and the leaders of the families in Jerusalem, in the rooms of the house of the Lord.” [m] 30 So the priests and the Levites received the weight of the silver and the gold and the vessels, to carry to Jerusalem, to the house of our God.

31 And we set out from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to come to Jerusalem. And the hand of our God was on us, and he rescued us from the hand of the enemy and of the one who fought against us on the road. [n] 32 And we came to Jerusalem and stayed there three days.

33 And on the fourth day we weighed out the silver and the gold and the vessels in the house of our God into the hand of Meremoth son of Uriah the priest — and with him was Eleazar son of Phinehas, and with them Jozabad son of Jeshua and Noadiah son of Benaiah, the Levites — 34 everything by number and by weight; and the whole weight was written down. At that time — [o] 35 those who had come from the captivity, the children of the exile, offered whole burnt offerings to the God of Israel: twelve young bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and twelve male goats as an offering for sin — all of it whole burnt offerings to the Lord. 36 And they gave the king’s order to the king’s officials and to the governors beyond the River, and they honored the people and the house of God.