Ezra, starting at chapter 7
{7:1} Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of
Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of
Hilkiah, {7:2} the son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of
Ahitub, {7:3} the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of
Meraioth, {7:4} the son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of
Bukki, {7:5} the son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of
Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest; {7:6} this Ezra went up
from Babylon: and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which
Yahweh, the God of Israel, had given; and the king granted him all his
request, according to the hand of Yahweh his God on him. {7:7} There
went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the
Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinim, to
Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king. {7:8} He came
to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the
king. {7:9} For on the first [day] of the first month began he to go
up from Babylon; and on the first [day] of the fifth month came he to
Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God on him. {7:10} For
Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of Yahweh, and to do it, and to
teach in Israel statutes and ordinances. {7:11} Now this is the copy
of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the
scribe, even the scribe of the words of the commandments of Yahweh,
and of his statutes to Israel: {7:12} Artaxerxes, king of kings, to
Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, perfect
and so forth. {7:13} I make a decree, that all those of the people of
Israel, and their priests and the Levites, in my realm, who are minded
of their own free will to go to Jerusalem, go with you. {7:14} Because
you are sent of the king and his seven counselors, to inquire
concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of your God which
is in your hand, {7:15} and to carry the silver and gold, which the
king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel,
whose habitation is in Jerusalem, {7:16} and all the silver and gold
that you shall find in all the province of Babylon, with the freewill
offering of the people, and of the priests, offering willingly for the
house of their God which is in Jerusalem; {7:17} therefore you shall
with all diligence buy with this money bulls, rams, lambs, with their
meal offerings and their drink offerings, and shall offer them on the
altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem. {7:18} Whatever
shall seem good to you and to your brothers to do with the rest of the
silver and the gold, that do you after the will of your God. {7:19}
The vessels that are given you for the service of the house of your
God, deliver you before the God of Jerusalem. {7:20} Whatever more
shall be needful for the house of your God, which you shall have
occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king's treasure house. {7:21}
I, even I Artaxerxes the king, do make a decree to all the treasurers
who are beyond the River, that whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of
the law of the God of heaven, shall require of you, it be done with
all diligence, {7:22} to one hundred talents of silver, and to one
hundred measures of wheat, and to one hundred baths of wine, and to
one hundred baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much.
{7:23} Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done
exactly for the house of the God of heaven; for why should there be
wrath against the realm of the king and his sons? {7:24} Also we
inform you, that touching any of the priests and Levites, the singers,
porters, Nethinim, or servants of this house of God, it shall not be
lawful to impose tribute, custom, or toll, on them. {7:25} You, Ezra,
after the wisdom of your God who is in your hand, appoint magistrates
and judges, who may judge all the people who are beyond the River, all
such as know the laws of your God; and teach you him who doesn't know
them. {7:26} Whoever will not do the law of your God, and the law of
the king, let judgment be executed on him with all diligence, whether
it be to death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to
imprisonment. {7:27} Blessed be Yahweh, the God of our fathers, who
has put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the
house of Yahweh which is in Jerusalem; {7:28} and has extended loving
kindness to me before the king, and his counselors, and before all the
king's mighty princes. I was strengthened according to the hand of
Yahweh my God on me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men
to go up with me.
{8:1} Now these are the heads of their fathers' [houses], and this
is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylon, in the
reign of Artaxerxes the king: {8:2} Of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom.
Of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel. Of the sons of David, Hattush. {8:3}
Of the sons of Shecaniah, of the sons of Parosh, Zechariah; and with
him were reckoned by genealogy of the males one hundred fifty. {8:4}
Of the sons of Pahathmoab, Eliehoenai the son of Zerahiah; and with
him two hundred males. {8:5} Of the sons of Shecaniah, the son of
Jahaziel; and with him three hundred males. {8:6} Of the sons of Adin,
Ebed the son of Jonathan; and with him fifty males. {8:7} Of the sons
of Elam, Jeshaiah the son of Athaliah; and with him seventy males.
{8:8} Of the sons of Shephatiah, Zebadiah the son of Michael; and with
him eighty males. {8:9} Of the sons of Joab, Obadiah the son of
Jehiel; and with him two hundred and eighteen males. {8:10} Of the
sons of Shelomith, the son of Josiphiah; and with him one hundred
sixty males. {8:11} Of the sons of Bebai, Zechariah the son of Bebai;
and with him twenty-eight males. {8:12} Of the sons of Azgad, Johanan
the son of Hakkatan; and with him one hundred ten males. {8:13} Of the
sons of Adonikam, [who were] the last; and these are their names:
Eliphelet, Jeuel, and Shemaiah; and with them sixty males. {8:14} Of
the sons of Bigvai, Uthai and Zabbud; and with them seventy males.
{8:15} I gathered them together to the river that runs to Ahava; and
there we encamped three days: and I viewed the people, and the
priests, and found there none of the sons of Levi. {8:16} Then sent I
for Eliezer, for Ariel, for Shemaiah, and for Elnathan, and for Jarib,
and for Elnathan, and for Nathan, and for Zechariah, and for
Meshullam, chief men; also for Joiarib, and for Elnathan, who were
teachers. {8:17} I sent them forth to Iddo the chief at the place
Casiphia; and I told them what they should tell Iddo, [and] his
brothers the Nethinim, at the place Casiphia, that they should bring
to us ministers for the house of our God. {8:18} According to the good
hand of our God on us they brought us a man of discretion, of the sons
of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel; and Sherebiah, with his
sons and his brothers, eighteen; {8:19} and Hashabiah, and with him
Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brothers and their sons, twenty;
{8:20} and of the Nethinim, whom David and the princes had given for
the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinim: all of
them were mentioned by name. {8:21} Then I proclaimed a fast there, at
the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to
seek of him a straight way for us, and for our little ones, and for
all our substance. {8:22} For I was ashamed to ask of the king a band
of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way,
because we had spoken to the king, saying, The hand of our God is on
all those who seek him, for good; but his power and his wrath is
against all those who forsake him. {8:23} So we fasted and begged our
God for this: and he was entreated of us. {8:24} Then I set apart
twelve of the chiefs of the priests, even Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and
ten of their brothers with them, {8:25} and weighed to them the
silver, and the gold, and the vessels, even the offering for the house
of our God, which the king, and his counselors, and his princes, and
all Israel there present, had offered: {8:26} I weighed into their
hand six hundred fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels one
hundred talents; of gold one hundred talents; {8:27} and twenty bowls
of gold, of one thousand darics; and two vessels of fine bright brass,
precious as gold. {8:28} I said to them, You are holy to Yahweh, and
the vessels are holy; and the silver and the gold are a freewill
offering to Yahweh, the God of your fathers. {8:29} Watch you, and
keep them, until you weigh them before the chiefs of the priests and
the Levites, and the princes of the fathers' [houses] of Israel, at
Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of Yahweh. {8:30} So the
priests and the Levites received the weight of the silver and the
gold, and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem to the house of our
God. {8:31} Then we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth [day]
of the first month, to go to Jerusalem: and the hand of our God was on
us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the bandit by
the way. {8:32} We came to Jerusalem, and abode there three days.
{8:33} On the fourth day the silver and the gold and the vessels were
weighed in the house of our God into the hand of Meremoth the son of
Uriah the priest; and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas; and
with them was Jozabad the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah the son of
Binnui, the Levite; {8:34} the whole by number and by weight: and all
the weight was written at that time. {8:35} The children of the
captivity, who had come out of exile, offered burnt offerings to the
God of Israel, twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams,
seventy-seven lambs, and twelve male goats for a sin offering: all
this was a burnt offering to Yahweh. {8:36} They delivered the king's
commissions to the king's satraps, and to the governors beyond the
River: and they furthered the people and the house of God.
{9:1} Now when these things were done, the princes drew near to me,
saying, The people of Israel, and the priests and the Levites, have
not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, [doing]
according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites,
the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the
Egyptians, and the Amorites. {9:2} For they have taken of their
daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed
have mixed themselves with the peoples of the lands: yes, the hand of
the princes and rulers has been chief in this trespass. {9:3} When I
heard this thing, I tore my garment and my robe, and plucked off the
hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down confounded. {9:4} Then
were assembled to me everyone who trembled at the words of the God of
Israel, because of the trespass of them of the captivity; and I sat
confounded until the evening offering. {9:5} At the evening offering I
arose up from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn;
and I fell on my knees, and spread out my hands to Yahweh my God;
{9:6} and I said, my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to
you, my God; for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our
guiltiness is grown up to the heavens. {9:7} Since the days of our
fathers we have been exceeding guilty to this day; and for our
iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into
the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to
plunder, and to confusion of face, as it is this day. {9:8} Now for a
little moment grace has been shown from Yahweh our God, to leave us a
remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our
God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our
bondage. {9:9} For we are bondservants; yet our God has not forsaken
us in our bondage, but has extended loving kindness to us in the sight
of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of
our God, and to repair the ruins of it, and to give us a wall in Judah
and in Jerusalem. {9:10} Now, our God, what shall we say after this?
for we have forsaken your commandments, {9:11} which you have
commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, The land, to which
you go to possess it, is an unclean land through the uncleanness of
the peoples of the lands, through their abominations, which have
filled it from one end to another with their filthiness: {9:12} now
therefore don't give your daughters to their sons, neither take their
daughters to your sons, nor seek their peace or their prosperity
forever; that you may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and
leave it for an inheritance to your children forever. {9:13} After all
that is come on us for our evil deeds, and for our great guilt, seeing
that you our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve,
and have given us such a remnant, {9:14} shall we again break your
commandments, and join in affinity with the peoples that do these
abominations? would not you be angry with us until you had consumed
us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape? {9:15}
Yahweh, the God of Israel, you are righteous; for we are left a
remnant that is escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before you
in our guiltiness; for none can stand before you because of this.
___
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