1 Esdras 8

1 And after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of the Persians, Ezra came up — the son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, son of Shallum, 2 son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, son of Amariah, son of Uzziah, son of Bukki, son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the first priest. [a] 3 This Ezra came up from Babylon as a scribe skilled in the law of Moses, which was given by the God of Israel; † 4 and the king gave him honor, since he had found favor before him in everything he asked.

5 There went up with him some of the children of Israel, and of the priests and Levites and temple singers and gatekeepers and temple servants, to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes, in the fifth month — this being the king’s seventh year. [b] 6 For they set out from Babylon on the new moon of the first month, and on the new moon of the fifth month they came to Jerusalem, by the prosperous journey the Lord granted them for his sake. [c] 7 For Ezra had great learning, so that he left out nothing of the law of the Lord or of the commands, but taught all Israel all the rules and the judgments.

8 The written decree from Artaxerxes the king reached Ezra the priest and reader of the law of the Lord; a copy of it is set out below. 9 “King Artaxerxes to Ezra the priest and reader of the law of the Lord: greetings. 10 I have judged it right to deal kindly, and I have given the order that any of the nation of the Jews who wish it, and of the priests and the Levites, and those within our kingdom who choose it, may travel with you to Jerusalem. 11 So let all who have a mind to it set out together with you, as it has seemed good to me and to my seven friends the counselors, 12 to look into the affairs of Judea and Jerusalem, in keeping with what stands in the law of the Lord,

13 and to carry to Jerusalem gifts for the Lord of Israel that I and my friends have vowed, and all the gold and silver that may be found in the country of Babylonia, for the Lord in Jerusalem, together with what has been given by the nation for the temple of their Lord in Jerusalem — 14 the gold and the silver to be gathered for bulls and rams and lambs and what goes with them, 15 so that sacrifices may be offered on the altar of their Lord in Jerusalem. 16 And whatever you and your brothers wish to do with the gold and the silver, carry it out according to the will of your God; 17 and so with the holy vessels of the Lord that are given to you for the use of the temple of your God in Jerusalem. [d] 18 And whatever else falls to you for the use of the temple of your God, you are to give it out of the king’s treasury.

19 And I, King Artaxerxes, have also given the order to the treasurers of Syria and Phoenicia that whatever Ezra the priest and reader of the law of the Most High God sends for, they are to give him without delay — up to seventy-five hundred pounds of silver, 20 and in the same way up to six hundred bushels of wheat and six hundred gallons of wine, and salt in abundance. [e] 21 Let everything laid down in the law of God be carried out carefully for the Most High God, so that no anger comes on the kingdom of the king and his sons. 22 And you are told this also: on all the priests and the Levites and temple singers and gatekeepers and temple servants and the officials of this temple, no tax and no other levy is to be laid, and no one is to have authority to lay anything on them.

23 And you, Ezra, by the wisdom of God, appoint judges and magistrates to give judgment in all Syria and Phoenicia for all who know the law of your God; and those who do not know it, you are to teach. 24 And all who break the law of your God and the law of the king are to be punished carefully, whether by death or by bodily punishment or by a fine in silver or by prison.”

25 Blessed be the only Lord, who put this into the heart of the king, to give glory to his house in Jerusalem, [f] 26 and who honored me before the king and his counselors and all his friends and nobles. 27 And I took courage by the help of the Lord my God, and I gathered men out of Israel to go up with me.

28 These are the leaders, by their families and their divisions, who went up with me from Babylon in the reign of Artaxerxes the king: 29 from the sons of Phinehas, Gershom; from the sons of Ithamar, Gamelus; from the sons of David, Hattush son of Shecaniah; 30 from the sons of Parosh, Zechariah, and with him a hundred and fifty men enrolled by name; 31 from the sons of Pahath-moab, Eliehoenai son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred men; 32 from the sons of Zattu, Shecaniah son of Jehiel, and with him three hundred men; from the sons of Adin, Ben-Jonathes, and with him two hundred and fifty men; 33 from the sons of Elam, Iesias son of Gotholias, and with him seventy men; [g] 34 from the sons of Shephatiah, Zerahiah son of Michael, and with him seventy men; 35 from the sons of Joab, Obadiah son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and twelve men;

36 from the sons of Bani, Shelomith son of Josiphiah, and with him a hundred and sixty men; 37 from the sons of Bebai, Zechariah son of Bebai, and with him twenty-eight men; 38 from the sons of Azgad, Johanan son of Hakkatan, and with him a hundred and ten men; 39 from the sons of Adonikam, the last ones, and these are their names: Eliphelet, Jeuel and Shemaiah, and with them seventy men; 40 from the sons of Bigvai, Uthai son of Istalcurus, and with him seventy men. [h]

41 And I gathered them at the river called Theras, and we camped there three days, and I looked the company over. [i] 42 And when I found there none of the sons of the priests and none of the Levites, 43 I sent to Eleazar and Iduel and Maasmas and Elnathan and Shemaiah and Joribus, Nathan, Ennatan, Zechariah and Meshullam, the leaders and men of understanding, [j] 44 and I told them to go to Addaeus, the leader at the place of the treasury, 45 charging them to say to Addaeus and his brothers and the treasurers at that place that they should send us men to serve as priests in the house of our Lord. [k]

46 And by the strong hand of our Lord they brought us men of understanding from the sons of Mahli son of Levi son of Israel: Asebebias and his sons and his brothers, eighteen; 47 and Hashabiah and Annunus and Hoshaiah his brother, of the sons of Chanunaeus, and their sons — twenty men; [l] 48 and of the temple servants, whom David and the leaders had given for the work of the Levites, two hundred and twenty temple servants; the whole list of their names was recorded.

49 And there I vowed a fast for the young men before our Lord, 50 to seek from him a prosperous journey for us and for our children and the livestock that were with us. 51 For I was ashamed to ask the king for foot soldiers and horsemen and an escort to keep us safe from those who opposed us; 52 for we had said to the king, “The strength of our Lord will be with those who seek him, to set everything right.” 53 And again we prayed to our Lord about these things, and we found him gracious to us.

54 And I set apart twelve men from the family leaders of the priests, and Sherebiah and Hashabiah, and with them ten of their brothers; [m] 55 and I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the holy vessels of the house of our Lord, which the king himself and his counselors and the nobles and all Israel had given. 56 And when I had weighed it, I handed over to them about twenty-four tons of silver, and silver vessels weighing about three and three-quarter tons, and gold, about three and three-quarter tons, and twenty gold bowls, and twelve vessels of fine bronze, polished till they gleamed like gold. [n]

57 And I said to them, “You are holy to the Lord, and the vessels are holy, and the silver and the gold are a vow to the Lord, the Lord of our fathers. 58 Stay awake and keep watch over them until you hand them over to the family leaders of the priests and the Levites and to the leaders of the families of Israel, in Jerusalem, in the rooms of the house of our Lord.” 59 So the priests and the Levites who received the silver and the gold and the vessels brought them to Jerusalem, into the temple of the Lord.

60 And we set out from the river Theras on the twelfth day of the first month, and we came into Jerusalem by the strong hand of our Lord, which was on us; and he rescued us on the way from every enemy, and so we came to Jerusalem. 61 And on the third day after we were there, the silver and the gold were weighed out and handed over in the house of our Lord to Meremoth son of Uriah the priest — [o] 62 and with him was Eleazar son of Phinehas, and with them Jozabad son of Jeshua and Moeth son of Sabannus, the Levites — everything by number and by weight; and the whole weight of it was written down at that very hour. [p]

63 And those who had come out of the captivity offered sacrifices to the Lord, the God of Israel: twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-two lambs, and twelve male goats for an offering of well-being — all of it a sacrifice to the Lord. [q] 64 And they delivered the king’s decrees to the king’s stewards and to the governors of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia; and they gave honor to the people and to the temple of the Lord. [r]

65 And when this was finished, the leaders came to me and said, 66 “The nation of Israel, and the leaders, and the priests, and the Levites, have not kept themselves apart from the foreign peoples of the land and their uncleanness — the Canaanites and Hittites and Perizzites and Jebusites and Moabites and Egyptians and Edomites. 67 For they and their sons have married their daughters, and the holy seed has been mixed into the foreign peoples of the land; and from the very start of this business the leading men and the nobles have had a share in this lawlessness.”

68 And as soon as I heard this, I tore my clothes and the holy garment, and I pulled out the hair of my head and of my beard, and I sat down brooding and full of grief. 69 And everyone who was ever moved by the word of the Lord of Israel gathered to me while I mourned over the lawlessness, and I sat on, full of grief, until the evening sacrifice. 70 Then I got up from the fast with my clothes and the holy garment torn, and I bent my knees and stretched out my hands to the Lord and said,

71 “Lord, I am put to shame; I am disgraced before your face. 72 For our sins have risen higher than our heads, and the wrongs we did without knowing have gone up as high as heaven, 73 from the days of our fathers; and we are in great sin to this day. 74 And because of our sins and our fathers’ sins we were handed over, with our brothers and our kings and our priests, to the kings of the earth — to the sword and to captivity and to plunder, with shame, to this very day.

75 And now, in some small measure, mercy has come to us from you, Lord, in that a root and a name have been left to us in the place of your sanctuary, [s] 76 and that a light has been uncovered for us in the house of our Lord, and food given us in the time of our slavery. 77 Even while we were slaves we were not abandoned by our Lord; he set us in favor before the kings of the Persians, 78 so that they gave us food and gave glory to the temple of our Lord and raised up desolate Zion, giving us a firm footing in Judea and Jerusalem.

79 And now what are we to say, Lord, with all this before us? For we have broken your decrees, which you gave by the hand of your servants the prophets, when you said: 80 ‘The land you are going into to inherit is a land defiled with the defilement of the foreigners of the land, and they have filled it with their uncleanness. 81 So now do not marry your daughters to their sons, and do not take their daughters for your sons. 82 And you are never to seek peace with them, so that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it as an inheritance to your sons forever.’

83 And everything that is happening to us is happening because of our evil deeds and our great sins. 84 For you, Lord, made our sins light and gave us a root such as this — and we turned back again to break your law and to mix ourselves with the uncleanness of the nations of the land. [t] 85 Were you not angry with us, to destroy us, until no root or seed or name of ours was left? 86 Lord of Israel, you are true; for we have been left a root, this day. 87 Look, we stand before you now in our lawless deeds; for because of them there is no standing before you any longer.”

88 And while Ezra was praying and speaking out openly, weeping, stretched face down on the ground before the temple, a very great crowd gathered to him out of Jerusalem — men and women and young people; for the weeping among the crowd was great. 89 And Jeconiah son of Jeelus, of the children of Israel, called out and said to Ezra, “We have sinned against the Lord and have married foreign women from the nations of the land; and now there is hope for Israel. [u] 90 Let us swear an oath to the Lord on this: to send away all our foreign wives, together with their children, as it has been decided by you and by all who obey the law of the Lord. 91 Get up and carry it out — the matter rests on you, and we are with you to act with strength.” 92 So Ezra got up and put the family leaders of the priests and the Levites of all Israel under oath to act on this; and they swore it. [v]