CHAPTER 8

¹And these are the patriarchal chiefs and their lineage who came up with me in the reign of King Artaxerxes from Babylonia. ²From the sons of Phineas, Gershom from the sons of Ithamar, Daniel; from the sons of David, Hattush; ³from the sons of Shechaniah—of the sons of Parosh, Zechariah, and through him was traced a male lineage of one hundred fifty; ⁴from the sons of Pahath-Moab, Elihoenai son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males; ⁵from the sons of Shechaniah son of Jahaziel, and with him three hundred males; ⁶and from the sons of Adin, Ebed son of Jonathan; and with him fifty males; ⁷and from the sons of Elam, Jeshaiah son of Athaliah, and with him seventy males; ⁸and from the sons of Shephatiah, Zebediah son of Michael, and with him eighty males; ⁹from the sons of Joab, Obadiah son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males; ¹⁰and from the sons of Shelomith son of Josiphiah, and with him one hundred sixty males; ¹¹and from the sons of Bebai, Zechariah son of Bebai, and with him twenty-eight males; ¹²and from the sons of Azgad, Jonathan son of Hakkatan, and with him one hundred ten males; ¹³and from the sons of Adonikam who were the last, these are their names: Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them sixty males; ¹⁴and from the sons of Bigvai, Uthai, and Zabbud, and with him, seventy males. ¹⁵And I gathered them by the river that enters Ahava, and we camped there three days. And I inspected the people and the priests but I did not find Levites there. ¹⁶And I sent teachers for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, and Elnathan and Jarib and Elnathan and Nathan and Zechariah and Meshullam—the chiefs. ¹⁷And I charged them concerning Iddo the chief in a place called Casophiah and put words in their mouth to speak to Iddo and his brother, who were located in the place Casophiah, to bring us ministrants for the house of God. ¹⁸And they brought us, as the beneficent hand of the LORD was upon us, a discerning man from the sons of Mahli son of Levi son of Israel, and Sherabiah and his sons and his brothers, eighteen in number. ¹⁹And Hashabiah and with him Jeshaiah from the sons of Merari his brother and their twenty sons. ²⁰And from the temple laborers whom David and the nobles had appointed for the service of the Levites, two hundred twenty temple workers all of them listed by name. ²¹And I proclaimed a fast there by the Ahava River to afflict ourselves before our God to seek from Him a straight way for us and for our little ones and for all our possessions. ²²For I was ashamed to ask of the king an armed force and horsemen to aid us against enemies on the way, for we had said to the king, saying, The hand of our God is benevolent upon all who seek him, and His power and His wrath are upon all who forsake Him. ²³And we fasted and sought out our God for this, and He granted our plea. ²⁴And I set apart from the heads of the priests twelve—Sherebaiah, Hashabiah, and with them ten of their brothers. ²⁵And I weighed out silver and gold to them and the vessels, the donation to the house of the LORD that the king and his councillors and his nobles and all Israel who were there had donated. ²⁶And I weighed out in their hand six hundred fifty talents of silver and silver vessels a hundred talents and a hundred talents of gold. ²⁷And twenty golden bowls worth a thousand adarchons and two vessels of goodly burnished bronze precious as gold. ²⁸And I said to them, “You are consecrated to the LORD and the vessels are consecrated and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the LORD your God. ²⁹Be vigilant and watch till you weigh it out before the chief priests and the patriarchal officers of Israel in Jerusalem in the chambers of the house of the LORD.” ³⁰And the priests and the Levites received the weighed measure of silver and gold and vessels to bring to Jerusalem to the house of our God. ³¹And we journeyed on from the Ahava River on the twelfth day of the first month to go to Jerusalem, and the hand of their God was over us and He saved us from the clutch of enemy and ambusher on the way. ³²And we came to Jerusalem and stayed there three days. ³³And on the fourth day the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed out in the house of our God by Meremoth son of Uriah the priest, and with him Eleazar son of Phineas and with them the Levites Jozabad son of Jeshua and Noadiah son of Binnui, ³⁴by count and by weight for everything, and the entire weight was written down at that time. ³⁵Those who came from the captivity, the exiles, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel, twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams and seventy-seven sheep, twelve he-goats as offense offering, all burnt offering to the LORD. ³⁶And they gave the king’s orders to the king’s governors and to the satraps of Beyond the River, and they bolstered the people and the house of God.