7 After the wall had been rebuilt, and I had set up its doors, and the gatekeepers, singers and L’vi’im had been appointed, ² I put my kinsman Hanani in charge of Yerushalayim, along with Hananyah the commander of the citadel. For he was a faithful man, and he feared God more than most. ³ I said to them, “The gates of Yerushalayim are not to be opened until the sun is hot; and while the gatekeepers are still on duty, have them shut the doors; and you, put up the bars. Appoint watchmen from among those living in Yerushalayim; assign each one his time to guard, and have each one serving near his own house.”

⁴ The city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and the houses had not been rebuilt. ⁵ My God put it in my heart to assemble the nobles, the leaders and the people, so that they could be registered according to their genealogies. I located the record of the genealogies of those who had come up at the beginning and found written in it:

⁶ “Here is a list of the people of the province who had been exiled, carried off to Bavel by N’vukhadnetzar king of Bavel, but who later returned from exile and went up to Yerushalayim and Y’hudah, each to his own city; ⁷ they went with Z’rubavel, Yeshua, Nechemyah, ‘Azaryah, Ra‘amyah, Nachmani, Mordekhai, Bilshan, Misperet, Bigvai, N’chum and Ba‘anah.

“The number of men from the people of Isra’el:

³⁹ “The cohanim:

⁴³ “The L’vi’im:

⁶¹ “The following went up from Tel-Melach, Tel-Harsha, K’ruv, Adon and Immer; but they could not state which fathers’ clan they and their children belonged to, [so it was not clear] whether they were from Isra’el:

⁶³ and of the cohanim:

⁶⁴ “These tried to locate their geneaolgical records, but they weren’t found. Therefore they were considered defiled and were not allowed to serve as cohanim. ⁶⁵ The Tirshata told them not to eat any of the especially holy food until a cohen appeared who could consult the urim and tumim.

⁶⁶ “The entire assembly numbered 42,360, ⁶⁷ not including their male and female slaves, of whom there were 7,337. They also had 245 male and female singers. ⁶⁸ Their horses numbered 736; their mules, 245; * ⁶⁹ their camels, 435; and their donkeys, 6,720.

⁷⁰ “Some from among the heads of fathers’ clans made contributions for the work. The Tirshata contributed to the treasury a thousand gold darkmonim [twenty-one pounds], fifty basins and 530 tunics for the cohanim. ⁷¹ Some of the heads of fathers’ clans gave into the treasury for the work 20,000 gold darkmonim [420 pounds] and 2,200 silver manim [one-and-a-third tons]. ⁷² The rest of the people gave 20,000 gold darkmonim, 2,000 silver manim [about one-and-a-quarter tons] and sixty-seven tunics for the cohanim.

⁷³ “So the cohanim, the L’vi’im, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants and all Isra’el lived in their towns.”

^(8:1) When the seventh month arrived, after the people of Isra’el had resettled in their towns,

8 all the people gathered with one accord in the open space in front of the Water Gate and asked ‘Ezra the Torah-teacher to bring the scroll of the Torah of Moshe, which Adonai had commanded Isra’el. ² ‘Ezra the cohen brought the Torah before the assembly, which consisted of men, women and all children old enough to understand. It was the first day of the seventh month. ³ Facing the open space in front of the Water Gate, he read from it to the men, the women and the children who could understand from early morning until noon; and all the people listened attentively to the scroll of the Torah. ⁴ ‘Ezra the Torah-teacher stood on a wood platform which they had made for the purpose; beside him on his right stood Mattityah, Shema, ‘Anayah, Uriyah, Hilkiyah and Ma‘aseiyah; while on his left were P’dayah, Misha’el, Malkiyah, Hashum, Hashbadanah, Z’kharyah and Meshulam. ⁵ ‘Ezra opened the scroll where all the people could see him, because he was higher than all the people; when he opened it, all the people rose to their feet. ⁶ ‘Ezra blessed Adonai, the great God; and all the people answered, “Amen! Amen!” as they lifted up their hands, bowed their heads and fell prostrate before Adonai with their faces to the ground. ⁷ The L’vi’im Yeshua, Bani, Sherevyah, Yamin, ‘Akuv, Shabtai, Hodiyah, Ma‘aseiyah, K’lita, ‘Azaryah, Yozavad, Hanan and P’layah explained the Torah to the people, while the people remained in their places. ⁸ They read clearly from the scroll, in the Torah of God, translated it, and enabled them to understand the sense of what was being read.

⁹ Nechemyah the Tirshata, ‘Ezra the cohen and Torah-teacher and the L’vi’im who taught the people said to all the people, “Today is consecrated to Adonai your God; don’t be mournful, don’t weep.” For all the people had been weeping when they heard the words of the Torah. ¹⁰ Then he said to them, “Go, eat rich food, drink sweet drinks, and send portions to those who can’t provide for themselves; for today is consecrated to our Lord. Don’t be sad, because the joy of Adonai is your strength.” ¹¹ In this way the L’vi’im quieted the people, as they said, “Be quiet, for today is holy; don’t be sad.” ¹² Then the people went off to eat, drink, send portions and celebrate; because they had understood the words that had been proclaimed to them.

¹³ On the second day, the heads of fathers’ clans of all the people assembled with the cohanim and L’vi’im before ‘Ezra the Torah-teacher to study the words of the Torah. ¹⁴ They found written in the Torah that Adonai had ordered through Moshe that the people of Isra’el were to live in sukkot during the feast of the seventh month; ¹⁵ and that they were to announce and pass the word in all their cities and in Yerushalayim, “Go out to the mountains, and collect branches of olives, wild olives, myrtles, palms, and other leafy trees to make sukkot, as prescribed.” ¹⁶ So the people went out, brought them and made sukkot for themselves, each one on the roof of his house, also in their courtyards, in the courtyards of the house of God, in the open space by the Water Gate and in the open space by the Efrayim Gate. ¹⁷ The entire community of those who had returned from the exile made sukkot and lived in the sukkot, for the people of Isra’el had not done this since the days of Yeshua the son of Nun. So there was very great joy. ¹⁸ Also they read every day, from the first day until the last day, in the scroll of the Torah of God. They kept the feast for seven days; then on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly, according to the rule.

1 Dear Theophilos:

In the first book, I wrote about everything Yeshua set out to do and teach, ² until the day when, after giving instructions through the Ruach HaKodesh to the emissaries whom he had chosen, he was taken up into heaven.

³ After his death he showed himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. During a period of forty days they saw him, and he spoke with them about the Kingdom of God.

⁴ At one of these gatherings, he instructed them not to leave Yerushalayim but to wait for “what the Father promised, which you heard about from me. ⁵ For Yochanan used to immerse people in water; but in a few days, you will be immersed in the Ruach HaKodesh!”

⁶ When they were together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore self-rule to Isra’el?” ⁷ He answered, “You don’t need to know the dates or the times; the Father has kept these under his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Ruach HaKodesh comes upon you; you will be my witnesses both in Yerushalayim and in all Y’hudah and Shomron, indeed to the ends of the earth!”

⁹ After saying this, he was taken up before their eyes; and a cloud hid him from their sight. ¹⁰ As they were staring into the sky after him, suddenly they saw two men dressed in white standing next to them. ¹¹ The men said, “You Galileans! Why are you standing, staring into space? This Yeshua, who has been taken away from you into heaven, will come back to you in just the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

¹² Then they returned the Shabbat-walk distance from the Mount of Olives to Yerushalayim. ¹³ After entering the city, they went to the upstairs room where they were staying. The names of the emissaries were Kefa, Ya‘akov, Yochanan, Andrew, Philip, T’oma, Bar-Talmai, Mattityahu, Ya‘akov Ben-Halfai, Shim‘on “the Zealot,” and Y’hudah Ben-Ya‘akov. ¹⁴ These all devoted themselves single-mindedly to prayer, along with some women, including Miryam (Yeshua’s mother), and his brothers.

¹⁵ During this period, when the group of believers numbered about 120, Kefa stood up and addressed his fellow-believers: ¹⁶ “Brothers, the Ruach HaKodesh spoke in advance through David about Y’hudah, and these words of the Tanakh had to be fulfilled. He was guide for those who arrested Yeshua — ¹⁷ he was one of us and had been assigned a part in our work.” ¹⁸ (With the money Y’hudah received for his evil deed, he bought a field; and there he fell to his death. His body swelled up and burst open, and all his insides spilled out. ¹⁹ This became known to everyone in Yerushalayim, so they called that field Hakal-D’ma — which in their language means “Field of Blood”). ²⁰ “Now,” said Kefa, “it is written in the book of Psalms,

²¹ Therefore, one of the men who have been with us continuously throughout the time the Lord Yeshua traveled around among us, ²² from the time Yochanan was immersing people until the day Yeshua was taken up from us — one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.”

²³ They nominated two men — Yosef Bar-Sabba, surnamed Justus, and Mattityahu. ²⁴ Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen ²⁵ to take over the work and the office of emissary that Y’hudah abandoned to go where he belongs.” ²⁶ Then they drew lots to decide between the two, and the lot fell to Mattityahu. So he was added to the eleven emissaries.