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¹ THESE are the names of the chiefs of their fathers and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylon in the reign of Artakhshisht the king:² Of the descendants of Phinehas, Gershom; of the descendants of Ithamar, Daniel; of the descendants of David, Hattush.³ Of the descendants of Shechaniah and the descendants of Pharaoh, Zechariah, and with him were reckoned by genealogy one hundred and fifty males.⁴ Of the descendants of Shultan-moab, Elijah and Khanani the sons of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males.⁵ Of the descendants of Shechaniah, Gado the son of Nahaziel, and with him three hundred males.⁶ Of the descendants of Gozan, Abdo the son of Jonathan, and with him fifty males.⁷ Of the descendants of Elam, Isaiah the son of Nethaniah, and with him seventy males.⁸ Of the descendants of Shephatiah, Zechariah the son of Michael, and with him eighty males.⁹ Of the descendants of Joab, Obadiah the son of Nehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males.¹⁰ Of the descendants of Salmoth, Salmoth the son of Nosiphiah, and with him two hundred and sixty males.¹¹ And of the descendants of Beki, Zechariah the son of Beki, and with him twenty and eight males.¹² And of the descendants of Azgar, Johanan the son of Zechariah, and with him a hundred and ten males.¹³ And of the last descendants of Arhekam whose names are these: Eliphelet, Naiel, and Shemaiah, and with them sixty males.¹⁴ Of the sons of Bigvai, Uthai and Zekor, and with them seventy males.¹⁵ And I gathered them together to the river that runs to Hawa; and there we encamped three days; and I viewed the people and the priests, and found there none of the descendants of Levi.¹⁶ Then I sent for Eleazer, Ariel, Shemiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Eliathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, chieftains; also for Jonadab and Eliathan; these were all leaders.¹⁷ And I commanded them to go to Adai their chief who was at the place Casiphia, and I told them what they should say to Adai and to his brethren who were encamped at the place Casiphia, that they should bring to us ministers for the house of our God.¹⁸ And by the good favor of our God upon us, they brought us a man of understanding, of the descendants of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel; and Sheriah, with his brothers and his sons, twelve;¹⁹ And Hashabiah, and with him Isaiah of the sons of Merari, his brothers and their sons, twenty;²⁰ And also of the men whom David had appointed for the service of the Levites (who were set apart), two hundred and twenty; all of them were called by their names.

²¹ Then I called them and proclaimed a fast at the river Hawa, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a right way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance.²² For I was ashamed to ask of the king a band of soldiers, an army and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the way, because we had spoken to the king, saying, The hand of our God is with all of those who seek him for good; but his power and his wrath are against all who forsake him.²³ So we fasted and besought our God for this; and he hearkened to us

²⁴ Then I selected twelve of the elders of the priests, Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them,²⁵ And counted to them the silver and the gold and the vessels, even the offering for the house of our God which the king and his noblemen and his princes and all Israel there present had offered;²⁶ And I counted into their hand one hundred and fifty talents of silver, and vessels of silver a hundred talents, and of gold one hundred talents;²⁷ Also twenty bowls of gold, of one thousand drams; and the vessels of fine Corinthian brass, precious as gold.²⁸ And I said to them, You are holy to the LORD, and the vessels are holy also; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the LORD God of your fathers.²⁹ Take heed and keep them until you deliver them in the presence of the chiefs of the priests and the Levites and the chiefs of the fathers of Israel at Jerusalem in the chambers of the house of the LORD.³⁰ So the priests and the Levites took upon themselves to deliver by the weight the silver and the gold and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem to the house of our God.

³¹ Then we departed from the river Hawa on the twelfth day of the first month to go to Jerusalem; and the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of our enemies and of such as lay in wait by the way.³² And we came to Jerusalem and remained there three days.³³ Now on the fourth day we weighed the silver and the gold and the vessels in the house of our God, and delivered them to Meremoth the son of Uriah the priest; and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas; and with them was Jozabar the son of Joshua and Jodaiah the son of Bagvai, Levites,³⁴ By number and by weight of everything; and all the weight of everything was written down at that time.³⁵ Now these are the descendants of those who had been carried away captive, who had come from captivity, who offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, twelve he-goats for a sin offering; all this was a burnt offering to the LORD.³⁶ And they delivered the kings decree to the kings princes and to the governors on this side the River; and they showed respect to the people and to the house of God.