1
The leaders, who took part with me in this migration under Artaxerxes, were descended as follows:
2
Gersom was of the stock of Phinees, Daniel of Ithamar, Hattus of David.
3
These were the numbers the various clans provided: Pharos (of the sons of Sechenias), a hundred and fifty under Zacharias;
4
Phahath-Moab, two hundred under Elioenai, son of Zarehe;
5
Sechenias, three hundred under …, son of Ezechiel;
6
Adan, fifty under Abed son of Jonathan;
7
Alam, seventy under Isaias son of Athalias;
8
Saphatia, eighty under Zebedia son of Michael;
9
Joab, two hundred and eighteen under Obedia son of Jahiel;
10
Selomith, a hundred and sixty under …, son of Josphia;
11
Bebai, twenty-eight under Bebai’s son Zacharias;
12
Azgad, a hundred and ten under Johanan son of Eccetan;
13
Adonicam, sixty, under his last remaining sons, Elipheleth, Jehiel and Samaias;
14
Begui, seventy under Uthai and Zachur.
15
We made a halt of three days by the Ahava river; and there I found that I had common folk with me and priests, but no Levites.
16
So I despatched some of the chiefs, Eliezer, Ariel, Semeias, Elnathan, Jarib, (a second Elnathan,) Nathan, Zacharias and Mosollam, with two prudent counsellors, Joiarib and Elnathan,
17
to Eddo, who was in command at Casphia; I bade them ask Eddo and the Nathinaeans who were there with him to supply us with ministers for the house of our God.
18
And they, by God’s favour, sent us …, a Levite of Moholi’s clan, with Sarabias and eighteen more of his kinsmen;
19
also a Merarite, Hasabias, with Isaias and twenty more of his.
20
There were also two hundred and twenty Nathinaeans; these Nathinaeans were men bound over by David and David’s councillors to the service of the Levites. A list of all their names was supplied to us.✻
21
There, by the Ahava river, I proclaimed a fast; we would do penance, and ask of the Lord our God a safe journey for ourselves, for the children who went with us, and for all that was ours.
22
I would have asked the king for an escort of horsemen to defend us from attack, but shame withheld me; had we not boasted in the king’s presence that our God graciously protected all who had recourse to him, that only faithless servants of his brought down on themselves the constraining power of his vengeance?
23
So fast we did, to win the favour we asked of God, and all went well.
24
Then I chose twelve of the leading priests, Sarabias and Hasabias with ten others,
25
and handed over to them the offerings made by king, councillors, and nobles, and by such Israelites as came forward with gifts; the whole weight of silver and gold, and all the hallowed appurtenances of our God’s temple.
26
It was six hundred and fifty talents of silver I paid over to them, with a hundred pieces of silver ware; and a hundred talents of gold,
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with twelve bowls of the same metal, each of ten pounds’ weight, and two pieces of the finest bronze ware, like gold itself for beauty.
28
You are consecrated to the Lord, I told them, and here are consecrated things; here are silver and gold offered as a free gift to the Lord God of our fathers.
29
Keep watchful guard over them; you are answerable for delivering them safely, in the presence of priest and Levite and clan chief there in Jerusalem, into the treasury of our God.
30
So these priests and Levites took all that weight of silver and gold into their keeping, and the ornaments besides, that must be brought safely to the house of our God at Jerusalem.
31
We left the Ahava river on the twelfth day of the first month, bound for Jerusalem; and, with our God protecting us from all peril on the way, of open enemy or secret,
32
to Jerusalem we came. We had been there but three days
33
before silver, gold and ornaments, were delivered safe in our God’s temple. Meremoth, son of the priest Urias, and Eleazar, son of Phinees, with two Levites, Jozabed son of Josue and Noadaia son of Bennoi,
34
handed it over, all counted and weighed, and its weight was duly entered.
35
And these exiles, restored now from captivity, offered the God of Israel burnt-sacrifice; twelve calves for the twelve tribes of Israel, ninety rams and seventy-seven lambs, besides twelve goats as an offering for fault. Such was the burnt-sacrifice they made in the Lord’s honour;
36
then they delivered the royal edict to the governors, that were the king’s officers; and now God’s people and God’s house were held in honour by all that bore rule in the country west of Euphrates.
