MSTC(i)
1 These are the principal fathers of them, and this is their register, that went up with me from Babylon; what time as king Artaxerxes reigned.
2 Of the children of Phinehas, Gershom; of the children of Ithamar, Daniel; of the children of David, Hattush;
3 of the children of Shecaniah, of the children of Parosh; Zechariah, and with him were numbered a hundred and fifty men.
4 Of the children of Pahathmoab, Elihoenai the son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred men.
5 Of the children of Shecaniah; the son of Jahaziel, and with him three hundred men.
6 Of the children also of Adin, Ebed the son of Jonathan, and with him fifty men.
7 Of the children of Elam, Jeshaiah the son of Athaliah, and with him seventy men.
8 Of the children of Shephatiah, Zebadiah the son of Michael, and with him fourscore men.
9 Of the children of Joab, Obadiah the son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen men.
10 Of the children of Shelomith; the son of Josiphiah, and with him a hundred and three men.
11 Of the children of Bebai, Zechariah the son of Bebai, and with him eight and twenty men.
12 Of the children of Azgad, Johanan the son of Hakkatan, and with him a hundred and ten men.
13 Of the children of Adonikam, that were the last whose names were there: Eliphelet, Jeuiel, and Shemaiah, and with them threescore men.
14 Of the children of Bigvai, Uthai, and Zabbud, and with them seventy men.
15 And I gathered them together by the water that runneth toward Ahava, and there abode we three days. And when I looked among the people and the priests, I found no Levites there.
16 Then sent I to Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, the rulers, and Joiarib and Elnathan, which were men of understanding.
17 And to those gave I commandment unto Iddo, the chiefest at Casiphia; and I told them what they should say unto Iddo and his brethren the Nethinims at Casiphia: that they should cause the ministers of the house of our God to come unto us.
18 And through the good hand of our God upon us, they brought us a wise man from among the children of Mahli the son of Levi the son of Israel, even Sherebiah, with his sons and brethren, eighteen;
19 And Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the children of Merari, with his brethren and their sons, twenty;
20 And of the Nethinims, whom David and the princes gave to minister unto the Levites, two hundred and twenty, all named by name.
21 And even there at the water beside Ahava, I proclaimed a fast, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and our children and all our substance.
22 For I was ashamed to require of the king, soldiers and horsemen, to help us against the enemy in the way. For we had said unto the king, "The hand of our God is upon all them that seek him in goodness, and his violence and wrath is upon all them that forsake him."
23 So we fasted, and besought our God for this; and he heard us.
24 And I took out twelve of the chief priests, Sherebiah and Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them,
25 and weighed them there the silver and gold and vessels for the heave offering unto the house of our God, which the king and his lords of his counsel and princes, and all Israel that were at hand, had given to the heave offering:
26 And there weighed I them, under their hand, six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and in silver vessel a hundred talents, and in gold a hundred talents,
27 twenty cups of gold of a thousand drams, and two costly ornaments of good brass, as clear as gold,
28 and said unto them, "Ye are holy unto the LORD, therefore are these vessels holy also, and so is the silver and the gold that is given of a good will unto the LORD God of your fathers:
29 Watch ye therefore and keep it, till ye weigh it down before the chief priests and Levites, and ancient fathers of Israel at Jerusalem in the chests of the house of the LORD."
30 Then took the priests and the Levites that weighed silver and gold and vessel, to bring it to Jerusalem unto the house of our God.
31 So we brake up, from the water of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go unto Jerusalem: and the hand of our God was upon us, and delivered us from the hand of the enemies and of such as laid wait for us by the way.
32 And we came to Jerusalem, and abode there three days.
33 But on the fourth day was the silver and gold and vessels weighed in the house of our God under the hand of Meremoth the son of Uriah the priest, and with him Eleazar the son of Phinehas, and with them Jozabad the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah the son of Binnui, the Levites,
34 according to the number and weight of every one. And the weight was all written up at the same time.
35 And the children of the captivity, which were come out of prison, offered burnt offerings unto the God of Israel: twelve bullocks for all Israel, six and ninety rams, seven and seventy lambs, twelve goats for a sin offering, all to the burnt offering of the LORD.
36 And they delivered the king's commission unto the king's officers, and to the captains on this side the water. And they promoted the people and the house of God.