The Exiles Who Returned with Ezra

1And these are the heads of their fathers and the genealogy of those going up with me, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king, from Babylon:

2Of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom;

of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel;

of the sons of David, Hattush 3of the sons of Shechaniah;

of the sons of Parosh, Zechariah, and with him were registered a hundred and fifty males;

4of the sons of Pahath-moab, Eliehoenai son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males;

5of the sons of Zattu, Shechaniah son of Jahaziel,† and with him three hundred males;

6and of the sons of Adin, Ebed son of Jonathan, and with him fifty males;

7and of the sons of Elam, Jeshaiah son of Athaliah, and with him seventy males;

8and of the sons of Shephatiah, Zebadiah son of Michael, and with him eighty males;

9of the sons of Joab, Obadiah son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males;

10and of the sons of Bani, Shelomith son of Josiphiah,† and with him a hundred and sixty males;

11and of the sons of Bebai, Zechariah son of Bebai, and with him twenty-eight males;

12and of the sons of Azgad, Johanan son of Hakkatan, and with him a hundred and ten males;

13and of the later† sons of Adonikam—and these are their names—Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them sixty males;

14and of the sons of Bigvai, Uthai and Zaccur,† and with them seventy males;

Ezra Sends for the Levites

15and I gathered them to the river that flows to Ahava, and we camped there three days. And I considered about the people and the priests, and from the sons of Levi I found none there.

16And I sent for Eliezer, for Ariel, for Shemaiah, and for Elnathan,† and for Jarib, and for Elnathan, and for Nathan, and for Zechariah, and for Meshullam—leaders—and for Joiarib and Elnathan—men of understanding. 17And I sent them to Iddo the leader in the place at Casiphia, and I told them what they should say to Iddo and his brothers the Nethinim† at Casiphia the place, that they should bring to us those ministering for the house of our God.

18And they brought to us by the good hand of our God upon us a man of understanding, of the sons of Mahli, son of Levi, son of Israel, Sherebiah, and his sons and his brothers, eighteen; 19and Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brothers, and their sons, twenty; 20and also 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 for Protection

21And I proclaimed there a fast at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before the face of our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and for our little ones and for all our possessions. 22For I was ashamed to ask of the king a force and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, “The hand of our God is upon all those who seek Him for good, and His strength and His wrath are against all forsaking Him.”

23And we fasted and sought from our God for this, and He was entreated of us.

Priests to Guard the Offerings

24And I separated twelve of the leaders of the priests, Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and with them ten of their brothers. 25And I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the articles, the contribution of the house of our God, which the king, and his counselors, and his princes, and all Israel—those present—had offered.

26And I weighed into their hands, six hundred and fifty talents of silver,† and a hundred talents of articles of silver† a hundred talents of gold,† 27and twenty gold bowls of a thousand drachmas,† and two vessels of fine polished bronze as precious as gold.

28And I said to them, “You⁺ are holy to YHWH, and the articles are holy, and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to YHWH, God of your⁺ fathers. 29Watch and keep them until you⁺ weigh them before the face of the leaders of the priests, and the Levites, and the heads of the fathers of Israel, in Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of YHWH.”

30And the priests and the Levites received by weight the silver and the gold and the articles, to bring them to Jerusalem to the house of our God.

31And we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth of the first month to go to Jerusalem, and the hand of our God was upon us, and He snatched us up from the hand of the enemy and the lier in wait along the road.

Arrival in Jerusalem

32And we came to Jerusalem and stayed there three days.

33And on the fourth day it was weighed out—the silver and the gold and the articles in the house of our God—by the hand of Meremoth son of Uriah the priest, and with him Eleazar son of Phinehas, and with them Jozabad son of Jeshua and Noadiah son of Binnui, the Levites, 34by number, by weight of everything, and all the weight was recorded at that time.

35Those coming in of the captives—the sons of the exile—offered 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 a burnt offering to YHWH.

36And they delivered the laws of the king to the satraps† of the king and the governors beyond the River,† and they lifted up the people and the house of God.

Footnotes:

5 Some LXX manuscripts (see also 1 Esdras 8:32); Hebrew of the sons of Shecaniah, son of Jahaziel
10 Some LXX manuscripts (see also 1 Esdras 8:36); Hebrew of the sons of Shelomith, the son of Josiphiah
13 Or the last
14 LXX, Syriac, and an alternate MT reading; the other alternate reads Zabbud.
16 Elnathan appears three times in verse, either as a repetition for emphasis or as a record of multiple men with this name.
17 That is, the temple servants; also in verse 20
26 650 talents is approximately 24.5 tons or 22.2 metric tons of silver.
26 100 talents is approximately 3.77 tons or 3.42 metric tons of silver articles.
26 100 talents is approximately 3.77 tons or 3.42 metric tons of gold.
27 Or worth 1,000 drachmas; that is, approximately 18.5 pounds or 8.4 kilograms of gold
36 A satrap was a Persian official.
36 That is, west of the Euphrates