The names of the family leaders who came back with Ezra
1Here is a list of the family leaders and their families who went with me when Artaxerxes was king of Babylon:
2From the family of Phinehas was Gershom, from the Ithamar family was Daniel, from the family of David was Hattush, 3son of Shekaniah, from the Parosh family was Zechariah and with him were 150 men. Their names are on the list of family names.
4From the Pahath-Moab family was Eliehoenai, son of Zerahiah, and with him were 200 men. 5From the Zattu family was Shekaniah, son of Jahaziel, and with him were 300 men. 6From the Adin family was Ebed, son of Jonathan, and with him were 50 men.
7From the Elam family was Jeshaiah, son of Athaliah, and with him were 70 men. 8From the Shephatiah family was Zebadiah, son of Michael, and with him were 80 men. 9From the Joab family was Obadiah, son of Jehiel, and with him were 218 men.
10From the Bani family was Shelomith, son of Josiphiah, and with him were 160 men. 11From the Bebai family was Zechariah, son of Bebai, and with him were 28 men. 12From the Azgad family was Johanan, son of Hakkatan, and with him were 110 men.
13The last ones from the Adonikam family were Eliphelet, Jeuel and Shemaiah and with them were 60 men. 14From the Bigvai family were Uthai and Zakkur and with them were 70 men.
Coming back to Jerusalem
15I called them all to come together at the river that flows to the town of Ahava. We stayed in tents for 3 days and when I looked to see how many of our people and priests there were, I saw there were no Levites. 16Then I sent the leaders to Iddo. The leaders were Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah and Meshullam and the teachers Joiarib and Elnathan. 17I sent them to take a message to Iddo. He was the leader in the town of Kasiphia where lots of Levites and temple-servants lived. I told them what to say to Iddo and to the other temple-servants in Kasiphia. They had to ask him to send workers for the temple of our God. 18Our God was good to us and they sent us a wise man from the family of Mahli, son of Levi, son of Jacob. The man's name was Sherebiah and with him they sent 18 of his sons and brothers. 19They also sent Hashabiah, and with him were Jeshaiah from the Merari family and 20 of his brothers and sons. 20There were also 220 men and boys from the families of the temple-servants. David and the princes had given them to work for the Levites. All their names are written in the list of families.
21I told them at the Ahava River that we must fast and humble ourselves before God and pray to Him that He will bring us safely to Jerusalem with our families and everything we have. 22I was ashamed to ask the king to send an army of men on horses with us to protect us from enemies on the way because we had told the king: ‘Our God is good to everyone who serves Him, but He becomes angry with those who turn away from Him and He punishes them.’ 23So we fasted and prayed to our God and asked Him to protect us and He did.
24I called 12 chief_priests, Sherebiah and Hashabiah and 10 other leaders. 25I weighed the silver and gold and other things for them. These were the gifts that the king and his advisors and officials and all the Israelites had given to the temple of our God. 26I weighed all of it and gave it to them. There were 650 talents of silver, 100 talents of silver pots and bowls, 100 talents of gold 27and 20 golden cups. The price of the cups was 1 000 darics. There were also 2 pieces of shining bronze, which were as precious as gold.
28I said to the chief_priests: ‘You are consecrated to the Lord and all these things are consecrated to Him. The silver and gold are gifts for the Lord, the God of your forefathers. 29You must look after them and keep them until you have weighed them in the rooms of the temple. You must weigh them where the chief_priests and Levites and family leaders of Israelites can see you.’
30The priests and the Levites then took the silver, gold and things that I had weighed with them to Jerusalem, to the temple of our God.
Ezra goes back to Jerusalem
31We went away from the Ahava River on the 12th day of the first month. We started going to Jerusalem and our God was with us. He protected us from enemies and thieves on our way. 32We came to Jerusalem and we stayed there for 3 days.
33On the 4th day the chief_priests weighed the silver and gold in the temple of our God and they gave it to the priest Meremoth, son of Uriah. Eleazar, son of Phinehas, was with him, and the Levites Jozabad, son of Jeshua, and Noadiah, son of Binnui, were also there. 34They weighed and counted everything and they wrote down how many things there were.
35The people who had been prisoners in Babylon and who had come back sacrificed burnt-offerings to the God of Israel. They sacrificed 12 bulls, a bull for each of the tribes_of_Israel, 96 sheep rams and 77 lambs. They also sacrificed 12 goat rams as a sin-offering. Everything was a burnt-offering for the Lord. 36The king wrote everything that he had decided in letters. They gave the king's letters to the chief_officials and to the governors of the lands west of the Euphrates River, and the officers did what they had to do for the Israelites and for the temple.
