Beginning

12 ¶ Now these are the priests and the Levites that came up with Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel and with Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,

² Amariah, Malluch, Hattush,

³ Shechaniah, Rehum, Meremoth,

⁴ Iddo, Ginnetho, Abijah,

⁵ Miamin, Maadiah, Bilgah,

⁶ Shemaiah, Joiarib, Jedaiah,

⁷ Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, and Jedaiah. These were the princes of the priests and of their brethren in the days of Jeshua.

⁸ And the Levites: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and Mattaniah, who with his brethren officiated in the songs of praise.

⁹ Also Bakbukiah and Unni, their brethren, were before them in the watches.

¹⁰ And Jeshua begat Joiakim, Joiakim begat Eliashib, and Eliashib begat Joiada,

¹¹ Joiada begat Jonathan, and Jonathan begat Jaddua.

¹² And in the days of Joiakim the priests, the heads of the families were of Seraiah, Meraiah; of Jeremiah, Hananiah;

¹³ of Ezra, Meshullam; of Amariah, Jehohanan;

¹⁴ of Melicu, Jonathan; of Shebaniah, Joseph;

¹⁵ of Harim, Adna; of Meraioth, Helkai;

¹⁶ of Iddo, Zechariah; of Ginnethon, Meshullam;

¹⁷ of Abijah, Zichri; of Miniamin, of Moadiah, Piltai;

¹⁸ of Bilgah, Shammua; of Shemaiah, Jehonathan;

¹⁹ of Joiarib, Mattenai; of Jedaiah, Uzzi;

²⁰ of Sallai, Kallai; of Amok, Eber;

²¹ of Hilkiah, Hashabiah; of Jedaiah, Nethaneel.

²² The Levites in the days of Eliashib, of Joiada and of Johanan and of Jaddua, were recorded as heads of families; also the priests, until the reign of Darius, the Persian.

²³ The sons of Levi, heads of families, were written in the book of the chronicles, until the days of Johanan the son of Eliashib.

²⁴ The heads of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, Jeshua, the son of Kadmiel, and their brethren before them, to praise and to give thanks, according to the statute of David, the man of God, keeping each one their ward.

²⁵ Mattaniah, Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, and Akkub were porters keeping the ward at the thresholds of the gates.

²⁶ These were in the days of Joiakim, the son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the captain, and of Ezra, the priest and scribe.

²⁷ ¶ And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgiving and with singing, with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps.

²⁸ And the sons of the singers were gathered together, both out of the plain country round about Jerusalem and from the villages of Netophathi;

²⁹ also from the house of Gilgal and out of the fields of Geba and Azmaveth; for the singers had built themselves villages round about Jerusalem.

³⁰ And the priests and the Levites purified themselves and purified the people and the gates and the wall.

³¹ Then I brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall and appointed two great choirs which went in procession, one went on the right hand upon the wall toward the dung gate.

³² And after them went Hoshaiah and half of the princes of Judah,

³³ and Azariah, Ezra, Meshullam,

³⁴ Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah, and Jeremiah;

³⁵ and certain of the priests’ sons with trumpets: namely, Zechariah, the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Michaiah, the son of Zaccur, the son of Asaph;

³⁶ and his brethren, Shemaiah, Azarael, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethaneel, Judah, and Hanani, with the musical instruments of David, the man of God, and Ezra, the scribe, before them.

³⁷ And at the fountain gate, which was over against them, they went up by the stairs of the city of David, at the going up of the wall, from the house of David unto the water gate eastward.

³⁸ And the second choir went over against them, and I after them with half of the people upon the wall, from the tower of the furnaces even unto the broad wall,

³⁹ and from the gate of Ephraim, to the old gate, and to the fish gate, to the tower of Hananeel, and the tower of Meah, unto the sheep gate; and they stood still in the gate of the guards.

⁴⁰ Then the two choirs stood in the house of God, and I and half of the rulers with me;

⁴¹ and the priests: Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Michaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah, with trumpets;

⁴² and Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malchijah, Elam, and Ezer. And the singers sang loud, with Jezrahiah their overseer.

⁴³ Also that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women also and the children rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.

⁴⁴ ¶ And at that time men were appointed over the chambers of the treasures, of the offerings, of the firstfruits, and of the tithes, to gather into them out of the fields of the cities the legal portions for the priests and the Levites; for the joy of Judah was upon the priests and the Levites that served.

⁴⁵ And they kept the ward of their God and the ward of the purification, and the singers and the porters, according to the statute of David and of Solomon, his son.

⁴⁶ For from the time of David and Asaph of old there were princes of the singers, and songs and praise and thanksgiving unto God.

⁴⁷ And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah, gave the portions of the singers and the porters, each thing in its day; and they sanctified them unto the Levites; and the Levites sanctified them unto the sons of Aaron.

13 ¶ On that day they read in the book of Moses in the audience of the people; and it was found written therein that the Ammonites and the Moabites should not come into the congregation of God forever

² because they did not meet the sons of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, that he should curse them; howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing.

³ Now it came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude.

⁴ And before this, Eliashib, the priest, had been the overseer of the chamber of the house of our God, and was related to Tobiah,

⁵ and he had prepared for him a great chamber, where before they had kept the present, the frankincense, the vessels, the tithe of the grain, of the new wine, and of the oil, which was commanded to be given to the Levites, to the singers and the porters and the offerings of the priests.

⁶ But in all this time I was not at Jerusalem; for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I went unto the king, and after certain days I was sent by the king.

⁷ And I came to Jerusalem and understood the evil that Eliashib had done attending Tobiah, in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God.

⁸ And it grieved me sore; therefore, I cast forth all the household vessels of Tobiah out of the chamber.

⁹ Then I commanded, and they cleansed the chambers; and I caused the vessels of the house of God to be brought there again, with the present and the frankincense.

¹⁰ ¶ And I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them and that the Levites and the singers, that did the work, had fled each one to his inheritance.

¹¹ Then I contended with the rulers and said, Why is the house of God forsaken? And I gathered them together and set them in their place.

¹² Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, of the new wine, and of the oil unto the store houses.

¹³ And I made treasurers over the store houses, Shelemiah, the priest, and Zadok, the scribe, and of the Levites, Pedaiah; and next to them was Hanan, the son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah; for they were counted faithful, and their office was to distribute unto their brethren.

¹⁴ Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and wipe not out my mercies that I have done for the house of my God and for its wards.

¹⁵ ¶ In those days I saw in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath and bringing in sheaves and lading asses with wine, grapes, figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day; and I protested unto them the day in which they sold the food.

¹⁶ There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, who brought fish and all manner of merchandise, and sold on the sabbath to the sons of Judah in Jerusalem.

¹⁷ Then I contended with the nobles of Judah and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do and profane thus the sabbath day?

¹⁸ Did not your fathers do this, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us and upon this city? Yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath.

¹⁹ And it came to pass, that when shadow came to the gates of Jerusalem before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut and charged that they should not be opened until after the sabbath; and I set some of my servants at the gates, that no burden be brought in on the sabbath day.

²⁰ So the merchants and sellers of all kinds of merchandise lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice.

²¹ Then I testified and protested against them and said unto them, Why do ye lodge about the wall? If ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth they came no more on the sabbath.

²² And I told the Levites that they should cleanse themselves and that they should come and guard the gates, to sanctify the sabbath day. Remember me, O my God, concerning this also, and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy.

²³ ¶ In those days I also saw Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab;

²⁴ and their sons spoke half in the speech of Ashdod, and according to the language of each people; for they could not speak in the Jews’ language.

²⁵ And I contended with them and cursed them and smote certain of them and plucked off their hair and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves.

²⁶ Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless, strange women caused even him to offend.

²⁷ Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God in marrying strange women?

²⁸ And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib, the high priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite; therefore, I chased him from me.

²⁹ Remember them, O my God because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.

³⁰ Thus I cleansed them from all strangers and appointed the wards of the priests and the Levites, each one in his work,

³¹ and for the wood offering, at the appointed times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.