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 Torah of Moses, which
the LORD, the God of Israel, had given; and the king granted him all
his request, according to the hand of the LORD 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 the LORD, 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 the
LORD, 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, do that after the will
of your God. {7:19} The vessels that are given to you for the service
of the house of your God, deliver 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 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 the LORD, the God of our fathers, who
has put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the
house of the LORD 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 the LORD 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' households, 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, Yochanan
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 the LORD,
and the vessels are holy; and the silver and the gold are a freewill
offering to the LORD, the God of your fathers. {8:29} Watch, and keep
them, until you weigh them before the chiefs of the priests and the
Levites, and the princes of the fathers' households of Israel, at
Jerusalem, in the rooms of the house of the LORD." {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 stayed 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 Yeshua, 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 the LORD. {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 God's house.
{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, following
their abominations, even those 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 their trespass 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 the LORD 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 have
increased over our head, and our guiltiness has 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 we, our kings, and our
priests, have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands,
to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to confusion of face, as
it is this day. {9:8} Now for a little moment grace has been shown
from the LORD 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 its ruins,
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 has come on us for our evil deeds, and for
our great guilt, since 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? Wouldn't you be angry with us until you
had consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to
escape? {9:15} LORD, the God of Israel, you are righteous; for we are
left a remnant that has 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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