NEHEMIAH

Chapter 1

¹ I am Nehemiah son of Hakaliah. I am writing this account of what I did when I returned to Jerusalem. During the twentieth year after King Artaxerxes began to rule the Persian Empire, in the month of Kislev. I was in Susa, the capital of Persia.

² My brother Hanani came to see me. He and some other men were from Judah. I asked them questions about the small number of Jews who had escaped from the Babylonian exile, and about the city of Jerusalem.

³ They said to me, "The Jews who survived the captivity are living there in Judah with great difficulty and shame. The wall of the city was pushed down at many places so an army could easily come through it, and not only so, but the gates of the city have been completely destroyed by fire."

⁴ When I heard that, I sat down and cried. For many days I mourned and fasted, and I prayed to the God who is in heaven. ⁵ I said, "Yahweh, you are the God who is in heaven. You are the great and awesome God, and you keep your sacred bond and promise with everyone who loves you and who obeys your rules and commands. ⁶ Now please look at me and listen to what I am praying. I pray during the day and at night for your Israelite people. I confess that we have sinned. Even I and my family have sinned against you. ⁷ We have acted very wickedly. Many years ago your servant Moses gave us your laws and all the decrees you commanded us to do, but we did not keep them.

⁸ But please remember what you told your servant Moses. You said, 'If you do not live with faith and obedience before me, I will scatter you among the nations. ⁹ But if you return to me and obey my commands, even if you have been exiled to a very remote place, I will gather all of you up and bring you back to this place where I showed you how great and glorious I am.'

¹⁰ We are your servants. We are the people whom you have delivered from slavery by your very great power. You did that because you are able to do whatever you desire. ¹¹ Yahweh, please hear my prayer, I who am your servant. Please hear the prayers of all your people who have great joy when they honor you for who you are and what you do. Now I pray you would give me success when I go to the king; and protect me as I make a request of the king that could put my life in jeopardy. Give me mercy."

I was serving as one of the most trusted servants to the king.

Chapter 2

¹ In the month of Nisan during the twentieth year of the rule of King Artaxerxes, it was time to serve wine to him during a feast. I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had never looked sad when I was before the king. ² But that day, the king looked at me and he said to me, "Why are you so sad? You do not look sick. Perhaps your spirit is troubled?" Then I was very afraid.

³ I replied, "O King, may you rule for many, many years! I am sad for a reason, because the city in which my ancestors are buried has been turned to rubble, and all the gates around the city have been burned to ashes."

⁴ The king replied, "What do you want me to do for you?"

And before I answered him, I prayed to God in heaven. ⁵ Then I replied, "If you are willing to do it, and if I have pleased you, then you could send me to Jerusalem, where my ancestors are buried, so that I may rebuild the city."

⁶ The king (with queen sitting beside him) asked me, "If I allow you to go, how long will you be gone? And when will you return?" He gave me permisson to go as soon as I gave him the dates of my going there and coming back again.

⁷ I also said to the king, "As a reward for my faithful service to you, please give me letters addressed to the governors who oversee the area beyond the Euphrates River. Please give them orders to allow me to travel safely through their province on my way to and from Judah. ⁸ Also, please write a letter to Asaph, who manages all the timber in your forest, and tell him to make beams to repair the gates of the fortress next to the temple, and to repair the walls of the city, and the house in which I will live." The king did what I requested him to do, because God was helping me get what I needed for these repairs.

⁹ I left to travel to Judah. The king sent some army officers and soldiers riding on horses to accompany me, to protect me. When we came to the region where the governors ruled, I gave them the letters from the king.

¹⁰ But when two government officials, Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant, heard that I had arrived, they were very angry that someone had come to help the people of Israel.

¹¹ So I came to Jerusalem and stayed there three days. ¹² I went out of the city in the evening, and I took a few men with me. We only had one animal, the one that I was riding on. I said nothing to anyone about what God had inspired me to do in Jerusalem.

¹³ I passed through the Valley Gate and went outside of the city wall. Then I went around the city and passed by the well called the Jackal's Well. Then I proceeded to the Dung Gate. I inspected all the walls around Jerusalem and found they were all broken open, and the wooden gates all around the wall were burned to ashes. ¹⁴ Then I went to the Fountain Gate and to the pool called the King's Pool, but my donkey could not get through the narrow opening. ¹⁵ So I turned back and went along the Kidron Valley and I inspected the wall there before I turned back and entered the city again at the Valley Gate. ¹⁶ The city officials did not know where I had gone, or what I had done. I had not said anything about it to the Jewish leaders or the officials or the priests or any of the others who would do the repair work.

¹⁷ I said, "You all know very well the terrible things that have happened to our city. The city is lies in ruins, and even the gates are burned down. Come, let us do the work to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. If we do that, we will no longer be ashamed of our city." ¹⁸ Then I told them about how God had kindly helped me when I talked to the king, and what the king had said to me.

They replied, "Let us get up and build!" So they got ready to do this good work.

¹⁹ But Sanballat, Tobiah the Ammonite servant, and Geshem the Arabian, heard about what we planned to do. They mocked and made fun of us. They said, "What is this work that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?"

²⁰ But I replied, "The God who is in heaven will give us success. But you have no right to this city, you have no deed, you have no lawful claim to it, and you have no historic connection to the city of Jerusalem."

Chapter 3

¹ Then Eliashib, the high priest of Israel, working with the other priests, rebuilt the Sheep Gate. They set it apart for the honor of Yahweh, and set the doors of the gate in place. Then they rebuilt the wall as far as the Tower of the Hundred, and they set it apart to honor Yahweh. They also rebuilt the Tower of Hananel. ² Next to them, men from Jericho were rebuilding. Next to them, Zaccur son of Imri, was rebuilding.

³ The sons of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate. They laid in the wooden beams above the gates, and also set the doors in place. Then they affixed the bolt and the bars for a strong lock. ⁴ Next to them, Meremoth, the son of Uriah and grandson of Hakkoz, repaired the walls to make them strong. Next to him, Meshullam son of Berekiah and grandson of Meshezabel, repaired part of the wall. Next to him, Zadok son of Baana repaired part of the wall. ⁵ Next to him, Tekoites repaired part of the wall, but the leaders of Tekoa refused to do the work that their supervisors assigned to them.

⁶ Joiada son of Paseah, and Meshullam son of Besodeiah, repaired the Old Gate. They also put in their places the beams above the gate and put in the bolts and the bars for locking the gate. ⁷ Next to them Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite, who were men from Gibeon and Mizpah, made repairs on the portion where the governor of the province beyond the River lived. ⁸ Next to him, Uzziel son of Harhaiah, and Hananiah, but they worked on a section of the wall as far as the Broad Wall. Harhaiah made things from gold, and Hananiah made perfumes. ⁹ Next to them, Rephaiah son of Hur, who ruled half of the district of Jerusalem, repaired part of the wall. ¹⁰ Next to him, Jedaiah son of Harumaph repaired part of the wall near his house. Next to him, Hattush son of Hashabneiah repaired part of the wall. ¹¹ Malchijah son of Harim, and Hashub son of Pahathmoab, repaired a section of the wall, and also repaired the Tower of the Ovens. ¹² Next to him, Shallum son of Hallohesh, who ruled the other half of the district of Jerusalem, repaired part of the wall. His daughters helped him with the work.

¹³ Hanun and people from the city of Zanoah repaired the Valley Gate. They put the gates in their places, and also put in the bolts and bars for locking the gate. They repaired the wall for 460 meters, as far as the Dung Gate.

¹⁴ Malchijah son of Recab, who ruled the district of Beth Haccherem, repaired the Dung Gate. He also put in their places the bolts and bars for locking the gate.

¹⁵ Shallum son of Colhozeh, who ruled the district of Mizpah, repaired the Fountain Gate. He put a roof over the gate, and put in their places the gates and the bolts and the bars for locking the gate. Near the Pool of Siloam he built the wall next to the king's garden, as far as the steps that went down from the city of David. ¹⁶ Next to him, Nehemiah son of Azbuk, who ruled half of the district of Beth Zur, repaired the wall as far as the tombs in the city of David, to the pool that was man-made, and to the House of the Heroes.

¹⁷ Next to him, several descendants of Levi who helped the priests repaired parts of the wall. Rehum son of Bani repaired one section. Hashabiah, who ruled half of the district of Keilah, repaired the next section on behalf of the people of his district. ¹⁸ Binnui son of Henadad, who ruled the other half of the district of Keilah, repaired the next section along with other descendants of Levi. ¹⁹ Next to him, Ezer son of Jeshua, who ruled the city of Mizpah, repaired another section in front of the steps which went up to the armory, up to the point where there is a buttress at the corner of the wall. ²⁰ Next to him, Baruch son of Zabbai repaired a section of the wall with great enthusiasm. He worked on the section from the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest to the end of his house. ²¹ Next to him, Meremoth son of Uriah and grandson of Hakkoz repaired a section from the door of Eliashib's house to the end of his house.

²² Next to him, several priests repaired parts of the wall. The priests from the area near Jerusalem repaired one section. ²³ Next to them, Benjamin and Hasshub repaired a section in front of their house. Azariah son of Maaseiah and grandson of Ananiah, repaired the next section in front of his house. ²⁴ Next to him, Binnui son of Henadad repaired a section, from Azariah's house to where the wall turns a bit. ²⁵ Next to him, Palal son of Uzai repaired a section, from where the wall turns and from where the watchtower is taller than the upper palace. The watchtower is near the courtyard where the guards lived. Next to Palal, Pedaiah son of Parosh repaired the wall. ²⁶ Next to him the temple servants repaired a section facing the Water Gate on the east side of the tall tower. ²⁷ Next to him, the Tekoites repaired a second section that was in front of the tall tower as far as the wall of Ophel.

²⁸ A group of priests repaired the wall north from the Horse Gate. Each one repaired the section in front of his own house. ²⁹ Next to them, Zadok son of Immer repaired the section in front of his house. Next to him, Shemaiah son of Shecaniah, who was the gatekeeper at the east gate, repaired the next section. ³⁰ Next to him, Hananiah son of Shelemiah, and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph, repaired a section. That was the second section that they repaired. After him Meshullam son of Berechiah repaired the walls in the section that faced the rooms where he lived. ³¹ Next to them, Malchijah, who also made things from gold, repaired a section as far as the building used by the temple servants and merchants, which was in front of the Appointment Gate and the upper apartments on the corner. ³² Other men who worked with gold, making beautiful things, along with merchants, repaired the last section of the wall as far as the Sheep Gate.

Chapter 4

¹ When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the city wall, the fact that they were rebuilding Jerusalem burned like a fire within him, and he was furious and he spoke of the Jews with disgust. ² While his counselors and officials of the army troops who had come from Samaria were listening he said, "These Jews can hardly stand on their own legs, what do they think they are doing? Will they rebuild the city and live in it themselves? Will they restore the temple and the all the sacrifices that the priests gave to Yahweh? Will they finish such a great work in only a day? Will they turn these burned and useless rocks into useful material to rebuilt the wall and will they bring life to the city again?

³ Tobiah was standing beside Sanballat. He said, "That wall they are building is so weak that even if a little fox climbed up on it, their stone wall would fall to the ground!"

⁴ Then I prayed. I said, "Our God, hear us, because they are ridiculing us! Cause the words of their insults to fall back on themselves! Allow their enemies to come and capture them and force them to go to a foreign land! ⁵ They are guilty. Do not take away their guilt and let them answer for the sin they committed before you. With their insults, they are making those who are rebuilding the walls become very angry!"

⁶ But after some time, the workers built the wall around the whole city to about half its total height. They were able to accomplish this because they wanted to do the best work they could do.

⁷ But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabians, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the work on the wall was continuing and that we were filling in the gaps in the wall, they became very angry. ⁸ They all made a plan together to come and fight against the people of Jerusalem, and to cause confusion within it. ⁹ But we prayed to our God to protect us, and we put men around the walls to guard the city day and night because of these who were so angry with us for rebuilding the wall.

¹⁰ Then the people of Judah started to say, "The men who are working on the wall have used up all their strength. There is too much heavy rubble that we must move away; we are not able to finish this work. It is too much for us.

¹¹ Besides, our enemies are saying, 'Before the Jews see us, we will rush down on them and kill them and stop their work on the wall!'"

¹² The Jews who were living near our enemies came and told us many times, to warn us about the wicked plans our enemies were planning to carry out against us.

¹³ So I put people from each of the families to stand guard at the wall. They were put at the lowest points of the wall, at the places where the wall would be most easily crossed over. They would protect it with their swords, their spears, and their bows and arrows. ¹⁴ Then after I inspected everything, I summoned the leaders and other officials and many of the other people, and I said to them, "Do not be afraid of our enemies! Keep in mind God is great and glorious! And fight to protect your families, your sons and daughters, your wives, and your homes!"

¹⁵ Our enemies heard that we knew what they were planning to do and that God had spoiled all their plans to stop our work. So we all returned to work on the wall, at the same places we were working before.

¹⁶ But after that, only half of the men there were doing the work on the wall. The others stood there holding their spears, shields, bows and arrows, and wearing armor for protection. The leaders stood guard behind the people of Judah. ¹⁷ Those who were building the wall and those who carried the heavy loads on their backs, all of them built the wall with one hand and held a weapon in the other hand. ¹⁸ All who were building the wall had his sword fastened to his side. The man who would blow the trumpet if our enemies attacked was standing at my side.

¹⁹ Then I said to the officials, the other important men, and the other people, "This is a huge job, and we are far apart from each other along the wall. ²⁰ If you hear the man blowing the trumpet, gather around at that place. Our God will fight for us!"

²¹ So we continued to work. Half of the men continued to hold their spears all day, from when the sun rose in the morning until the stars appeared at night. ²² At that time, I also said to the people, "Tell every worker and his helper that they must stay inside Jerusalem at night. By doing that, they can guard us at night, and they can work on the wall during the daytime." ²³ During that time, I did not put away my clothing, and I always carried my weapon The same was true of my brothers, my servants, and the men who followed me and served as guards. All of us did the same, even if we just went to get a drink of water.

Chapter 5

¹ Later, many of the men and their wives cried out for justice because of what some of the other Jews were doing. ² Some of them said, "We have many children. So we need a lot of grain to be able to eat and stay alive."

³ Others said, "it has been necessary for us to mortgage the fields and vineyards and houses that we own so that we may get grain to eat during this famine."

⁴ Others said, "We have needed to borrow money to pay the taxes we owe the king for our fields and our vineyards. ⁵ We are Jews just like the other Jews. Our children are just as important to us as their children are to them. But we have been forced to sell our children to become slaves in order to pay what we owe. We have already sold some of our daughters to become slaves. Our fields and vineyards have been taken away from us, so now we do not have the money to pay what we owe."

⁶ I was very angry when I heard these things about which they were so concerned. ⁷ So I thought about what I could do about it. I told the leaders and officials, "You are charging interest to your own relatives when they borrow money from you. You know that is wrong!" Then I called together a large group of people to bring charges against them. ⁸ I said to them, "Some of our Jewish relatives have been forced to sell themselves to become slaves of the nations. As much as we have been able, we have been buying them back. But now you are even selling your own relatives so that they might be sold back to us, their fellow Jews!" When I said that to them, they were silent. They did not answer with even a single word.

⁹ Then I said to them, "What you are doing is terrible. Should you not obey God and do what is right? If you did, you would prevent our enemies from treating us with disrepect. ¹⁰ I and my fellow Jews and my servants have lent money and grain to people. But let us all stop charging interest on any of these loans. ¹¹ Also, you must give back to them their fields, their vineyards, their olive tree orchards, and their houses that you have taken from them. You must also give back to them the interest that you charged them when they borrowed money, grain, wine, and olive oil from you. You must do this today!"

¹² The leaders replied, "We will do what you have said. We will return to them everything that we forced them to give to us, and we will not require that they give us anything more."

Then I summoned the priests, and I made them give an oath that they would do what they promised. ¹³ I shook out the folds of my robe and said to them, "If you do not do what you have just now promised to do, I hope that God will shake you like I am shaking my robe."

They all replied, "Amen, let it be so!" And they praised Yahweh. Then they did what they had promised to do.

¹⁴ I was appointed to be the governor of Judea in the twentieth year that Artaxerxes was the king of Persia. From that time until the thirty-second year, during those twelve years neither I nor my officials accepted the money that we were allowed to receive to buy food because of my being the governor. ¹⁵ The men who were governors before me had burdened the people by requiring them forty silver coins each day for their food and wine. Even their servants oppressed the people. But I did not do that, because I wanted to give honor and respect to God.

¹⁶ I also continued to work on this wall, and we did not buy any land from the people. All those who worked for me joined me to work on the wall. ¹⁷ Also, every day I was responsible to feed at our table the Jews and the officials, one hundred and fifty people; and we also fed the visitors who came from other countries around us. ¹⁸ Each day I told my servants to serve us the meat from one ox, six very good sheep, and birds. And every ten days I gave them a large new supply of wine. But I knew that the people were burdened by paying a great deal of money for taxes, so I did not accept the money that I was entitled to as governor.

¹⁹ My God, think of me, and reward me for all that I have done for this people.

Chapter 6

¹ Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem, and our other enemies heard a report that we had finished rebuilding the wall, and that now there were no more gaps, although we had not yet replaced the doors in the gates. ² So Sanballat and Geshem sent me a message that read, "Come and talk with us at a place in the plain of Ono north of Jerusalem." But it was no secret that they wanted to harm me.

³ So I sent messengers to them, to tell them, "I am doing an important work, and I cannot go down there. This work should not be delayed just so I can go down to talk with you. ⁴ They sent me the same message four times, and each time when I replied to them I said the same thing.

⁵ Then Sanballat sent one of his servants to me, bringing a fifth message. This one was written, but it was not sealed and he held it in his hand. ⁶ This is what was written in the message:

"Some people in the nearby countries have heard a report that you and the other Jews are rebuilding the wall in order to be able start a rebellion against the king of Babylon, and that you are planning to become the king of the Israel. Geshem has told us that this is the truth.

⁷ People are also saying that you have appointed some prophets to proclaim in Jerusalem that you, Nehemiah, are now the king in Judea. King Artaxerxes will certainly hear these reports, and then you will be in big trouble. So I suggest that we should meet together to talk about this matter."

⁸ When I read that message, I sent the messenger back to Sanballat to say, "None of what you are saying is true. You have made this up in your own imagination." ⁹ I said that because I knew that they were trying to cause us to be afraid, so that they thought, "They will become so discouraged that they will not work on the wall any more, and the work will never be finished." So I prayed, "O God, give me courage."

¹⁰ One day I went to talk with Shemaia son of Delaiah and grandson of Mehetabel. I went to talk with him in his house. He was ordered not to leave his house. He said to me, "You and I must enter the temple, and we must go to one of the rooms in the center of the temple, and lock the doors. They are going to come to kill you. They are coming tonight to kill you."

¹¹ I replied, "I am not that kind of person! I would not run and hide in the temple to save my life! No, I will not do that!" ¹² I thought about what he had said, and I saw that God had not told Shemaiah what to say to me. Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. ¹³ They had hired him to frighten me. They wanted me to disobey God's commands and sin by hiding in the temple. If I did that, they would give me a bad name for what I had done, and then they would humiliate me.

¹⁴ So I prayed, "My God, do not forget what Tobiah and Sanballat have done. And do not forget the prophetess Noadiah and the other prophets who tried to make me be afraid."

¹⁵ We finished rebuilding the wall in the month of Elul, on the twenty-fifth day of the month. We did all the work in fifty-two days. ¹⁶ When our enemies in the nearby countries heard about that, they became very afraid and they were humiliated, because they knew it was God who helped us complete this work.

¹⁷ During this time, the Jewish leaders had been sending many messages to Tobiah, and Tobiah had been sending messages back to them. ¹⁸ Many people in Judea had sworn their allegiance to Tobiah. He was the son-in-law of Shecaniah son of Arah, and Tobiah's son Jehohanan married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. ¹⁹ People often talked in my presence about all the good deeds that Tobiah had done, and then they would tell him everything that I said. So Tobiah sent many letters to me to try to cause me to become afraid.

Chapter 7

¹ After the wall had been finished and we had put the gates in their places, we assigned to the temple guards and to the members of the sacred choir and the other descendants of Levi the work that they were to do. ² I appointed my brother Hanani as governor of Jerusalem. He was a faithful man who respected God and honored him, more than many others. In addition, Hananiah was appointed commander of the fortress there in Jerusalem. ³ I said to them, "Do not open the gates of Jerusalem until the sun is hot. And close the gates and put the bars across the doors only when gatekeepers are guarding the gates." I also told them to appoint some people who live in Jerusalem to be guards, and to assign some of them to guard stations around the city, and some would guard near their own houses."

⁴ The city of Jerusalem covered a large area, but at that time not many people lived in the city, and they had not rebuilt any of the houses. ⁵ God gave me the idea to summon the leaders and officials and other people, and to enroll them by their families in the books of the records of the families. I also found the records of the people who had been the first ones to return to Jerusalem. This is what I found written in those records.

⁶ "This is a list of the people who returned to Jerusalem and to other places in Judea. They had been living in Babylonia. Nebuchadnezzar had taken them there. They returned to Jerusalem and to Judah. Each one who returned went back to his own city where his ancestors had lived before the exile. ⁷ They came back with Zerubbabel, Joshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, and Baanah.

The number of men from the people who returned to Judah are listed next.

⁸ From the descendants of Parosh, 2,172,
⁹ from the descendants of Shephatiah, 372,
¹⁰ from the descendants of Arah, 652.
¹¹ From the descendants of Pahathmoab, the descendants of Jeshua and Joab, 2,818,
¹² from the descendants of Elam, 1,254,
¹³ from the descendants of Zattu, 845,
¹⁴ from the descendants of Zakkai, 760.
¹⁵ From the descendants of Bani, 648,
¹⁶ from the descendants of Bebai, 628,
¹⁷ from the descendants of Azgad, 2,322,
¹⁸ from the descendants of Adonikam, 667.
¹⁹ From the descendants of Bigvai, 2,067,
²⁰ from the descendants of Adin, 655,
²¹ from the descendants of Ater, whose other name is Hezekiah, 98,
²² from the descendants of Hashum, 328.
²³ From the descendants of Bezai, 324,
²⁴ from the descendants of Hariph, whose other name is Jorah, 112,
²⁵ from the descendants of Gibeon, whose other name is Gibbar, ninety-five.

²⁶ Men whose ancestors had lived in these towns also returned:

Men from Bethlehem and Netophah, 188.
²⁷ There were also men from Anathoth, 128,
²⁸ men from Beth Azmaveth, forty-two,
²⁹ men from Kiriath Jearim, Kephirah and Beeroth, 743,
³⁰ men from Ramah and Geba, 621.
³¹ There were men from Micmash, 122,
³² men from Bethel and Ai, 123,
³³ men from Nebo, fifty-two,
³⁴ men from Elam, 1,254.
³⁵ There were men from Harim, 320,
³⁶ men from Jericho, 345,
³⁷ men from Lod, Hadid, and Ono, 721,
³⁸ men from Senaah, 3,930.

These priests also returned:

³⁹ The descendants of Jedaiah, who are the family of Jeshua, 973,
⁴⁰ the descendants of Immer, 1,052,
⁴¹ the descendants of Pashhur, 1,247,
⁴² the descendants of Harim, 1,017.

⁴³ Descendants of Levi who returned were:

the descendants of Jeshua, Kadmiel, Binnui, and Hodeva, seventy-four,
⁴⁴ singers who were descendants of Asaph, 148.

⁴⁵ Also 138 temple gatekeepers from the descendants of Shallum, Ater, Talmon, Akkub, Hatita, and Shobai, returned.

⁴⁶ Temple workers who returned were descendants of these men:

Ziha, Hasupha, Tabbaoth,
⁴⁷ Keros, Sia, Padon,
⁴⁸ Lebanah, Hagabah, Shalmai,
⁴⁹ Hanan, Giddel, Gahar,
⁵⁰ Reaiah, Rezin, Nekoda,
⁵¹ Gazzam, Uzza, Paseah,
⁵² Besai, Meunim, Ephusesim who is also called Nephushesim,
⁵³ Bakbuk, Hakupha, Harhur,
⁵⁴ Bazluth who is also called Bazluth, Mehida, Harsha,
⁵⁵ Barkos, Sisera, Temah,
⁵⁶ Neziah, and Hatipha.

⁵⁷ Descendants of the servants of King Solomon who returned were:

Sotai, Sophereth, Perida,
⁵⁸ Jaalah, Darkon, Giddel,
⁵⁹ the descendants of Shephatiah, the descendants of Hattil, the descendants of Pochereth Hazzebaim, the descendants of Amon.

⁶⁰ Altogether, there were 392 temple workers and descendants of Solomon's servants who returned.

^61-62 Another group of 642 people from the clans of Delaiah, Tobiah, and Nekoda returned from the towns of Telmelah, Telharsha, Kerub, Addon, also known as Addon, and Immer in Babylonia. But they could not prove that they were descendants of Israel.

⁶³ Priests from the descendants of Hobaiah, Hakkoz, and Barzillai also returned. Barzillai had married a woman who is a descendant of a man named Barzillai from the region of Gilead, and he had taken his wife's family name. ⁶⁴ They searched in the records that contained the names of people's ancestors, but they could not find the names of those families, so they were not allowed to have the rights and duties that priests had. They did not qualify to be priests because they could not trace their family history. ⁶⁵ The governor told them they should not be allowed to eat the priests' share of the food, taken from the sacrifices, and they should come who could use the marked stones to find what God said about their being priests once more.

⁶⁶ Altogether, there were 42,360 people who returned to Judea. ⁶⁷ There were also 7,337 of their servants, and two-hundred and forty-five singers, counting both men and women. ⁶⁸ The Israelites also brought back from Babylonia 736 horses, 245 mules, ⁶⁹ 435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys.

⁷⁰ Some of the leaders of the clans gave gifts for the work of rebuilding the temple. The governor gave eight and one-half kilograms of gold, fifty bowls to be used in the temple, and five-hundred and thirty robes for the priests. ⁷¹ The other leaders gave to the treasury one-hundred and seventy kilograms of gold, and the leaders of the clans gave a total of one and one-fifth metric tons of silver. ⁷² The rest of the people gave one-hundred and seventy kilograms of gold, and one metric ton of silver, and sixty-seven robes for the priests.

⁷³ So the priests, the Levites who helped the priests, the temple guards, the musicians, the temple workers, and many ordinary people, who were all Israelites, started to live in the towns and cities of Judea where their ancestors had lived.

By the seventh month the people of Israel had gone to their cities and they were living in them.

Chapter 8

¹ All the people gathered together in the plaza that was close to the Water Gate. Men and women and children who were old enough to understand gathered together. They asked Ezra to bring out the scroll of the law that Moses had written down, and which Yahweh had given as the law for the people of Israel, for them to obey its rules and commands. ² Ezra, who served God through the sacrifices in the temple, brought out the law and presented it before all the people, to both men and women, and anyone else who could understand what he read. He did this on the first day of the seventh month of that year. ³ So he brought it out and read it to the people. He read it from early in the morning until the middle of the day. All the people listened, men and women, anyone who was able to understand what he read. The people listened with great interest to what Ezra read from the book of the law.

⁴ Ezra stood on top of a high wooden platform that had been built by the people for this purpose. At his right side stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah. At his left side stood Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.

⁵ Ezra opened the scroll as he stood on the platform above the people, and all could see him, and as he opened the book all the people stood up. ⁶ Then Ezra praised Yahweh, the great God, and all the people lifted up their hands and said, "Amen! Amen!" Then they all bowed down with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped Yahweh.

⁷ Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, and Pelaiah, were all Levites. They explained the meaning of the laws of Moses to the people who were standing there. ⁸ They also read from scrolls the law that God gave to Moses, and they translated it into the Aramaic language, making the meaning clear for those who could understand it.