Ezra 8:21-36 ▼

21 And 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.

22 For 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.”

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

24 And I separated twelve of the leaders of the priests, Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and with them ten of their brothers.

25 And 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.

26 And 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,

27 and twenty gold bowls of a thousand drachmas, and two vessels of fine polished bronze as precious as gold.

28 And 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.

29 Watch 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.”

30 And 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.

31 And 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.

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

33 And 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,

34 by number, by weight of everything, and all the weight was recorded at that time.

35 Those 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.

36 And 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.