Nehemiah tells the people to stand guard
1After we had finished building the wall and put in the doors of the gates, we chose gatekeepers and people to sing in the temple and Levites to work there. 2I chose my brother Hanani to rule over Jerusalem, with Hananiah. Hananiah was the chief of the building at the temple that had strong walls. He was a man who always did what he promised and he respected God more than other people. 3I told the gatekeepers: ‘Do not open the doors of the gates of Jerusalem before the sun is high. Close the doors and lock them before the sun goes down. You must also choose guards, from the people of Jerusalem, for the gates, to stand guard at different places around the wall and others to stand guard near their own houses.’
The names of the people who came back from Babylon with Zerubbabel
4Jerusalem was a big city but there were not many houses or many people. 5My God then made me decide to call all the important people and leaders together so that we could write down the names of our people on the list of family names. And then I found another list of names. It had the names of the people who had first come back to Judah. I saw they had written:
6‘Here is a list of the people from the province of Judah who came back from Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took them away to Babylon to be prisoners long ago. Then they came back to Jerusalem and to Judah and everyone went back to his own town. 7They came with Zerubbabel and with Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum and Baanah.
Here is a list of the families of Israel and how many people there were in each family:
8In the family of Parosh, there were 2 172 men, 9in Shephatiah 372, 10in Arah 652, 11in Pahath-Moab, who were the families of Jeshua and Joab 2 818, 12in Elam 1 254, 13in Zattu 845, 14in Zakkai 760, 15in Binnui 648, 16in Bebai 628, 17in Azgad 2 322, 18in Adonikam 667, 19in Bigvai 2 067, 20in Adin 655, 21in Ater, that was the family of Hezekiah 98, 22in Hashum 328, 23in Bezai 324, 24in Hariph 112 25and Gibeon 95.
26From the towns of Bethlehem and Netophah, there were 188 people, 27from Anathoth 128, 28from Beth-Azmaveth 42, 29from Kiriath-Jearim, Kephirah and Beeroth 743, 30from Ramah and Geba 621, 31from Mikmash 122, 32from Bethel and Ai 123, 33from the other Nebo 52, 34from the other Elam 1 254, 35from Harim 320, 36from Jericho 345, 37from Lod, Hadid and Ono 721 38and from Senaah 3 930.
39From the families of priests there were Jedaiah, the descendants of Jeshua, 973, 40from Immer 1 052, 41from Pashhur 1 247 42and from Harim 1 017.
43The Levite families were Jeshua, who were the families of Kadmiel and Hodaviah. There were 74 of them. 44The family of Asaph were people who had to sing. There were 148 of them.
45The gatekeepers were the families of Shallum, Ater Talmon, Akkub, Hatita and Shobai. There were 138.
46The temple-servants were the families of Ziha, Hasupha, Tabbaoth, 47Keros, Sia, Padon, 48Lebana, Hagaba, Shalmai, 49Hanan, Giddel, Gahar, 50Reaiah, Rezin, Nekoda, 51Gazzam, Uzza, Paseah, 52Besai, Meunim, Nephusim, 53Bakbuk, Hakupha, Harhur, 54Bazluth, Mehida, Harsha, 55Barkos, Sisera, Temah, 56Neziah and Hatipha.
57The descendants of the servants of Solomon were the families of Sotai, Sophereth, Perida, 58Jaala, Darkon, Giddel, 59Shephatiah, Hattil, Pokereth-Hazzebaim and Amon.
60There were 392 temple-servants and descendants of the servants of Solomon.
61There were also people from the towns of Tel-Melah, Tel-Harsha, Kerub, Addon and Immer. But they could not prove from which families they came and who their forefathers were and that they were Israelites. 62There were 642 people from the families of Delaiah, Tobiah and Nekoda.
63The families of the priests were Hobaiah, Hakkoz and Barzillai. Barzillai married a daughter of Barzillai of Gilead and then he also named himself Barzillai. 64These families looked in the list of names but they could not find their names there, and that is why they could not be priests anymore. 65The governor told them not to eat of the food that was an offering to God. They had to wait until a priest used the urim_and_thummim to ask God what they must do.
66There were 42 360 people altogether who came back. 67There were also 7 337 slaves and slave women and 245 men and women who had to sing. 68-69They had 435 camels and 6 720 donkeys.
70Some of the family leaders brought gifts for the work at the temple. The governor gave 1 000 drachmas of gold, 50 bowls and 530 coats for the priests. 71Some of the family leaders gave 20 000 drachmas of gold and 2 200 minas of silver. 72The other people gave 20 000 drachmas of gold, 2 000 minas of silver and 67 coats for the priests.
73The priests and the Levites, the gatekeepers, the people who sang, the temple-servants and some of the other people went back to the towns where they had come from to live there. The other Israelites did the same.’
All the Israelites were living in their towns on the first day of the 7th month.
