Chronological
7 ¶ 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,
2 the son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub,
3 the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth,
4 the son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki,
5 the son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the first priest.
6 This Ezra went up from Babylon, and he was a diligent scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given; and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the LORD his God upon him.
7 And there went up some of the sons of Israel and of the priests and the Levites and the singers and the porters and the Nethinims, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, the king.
8 And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, in the seventh year of the king.
9 For upon the first of the first month he began to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.
10 For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD and to do it and to teach in Israel his statutes and judgments.
11 ¶ Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra, the priest, the scribe, a scribe of the words of the commandments of the LORD and of his statutes over Israel.
12 Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra, the priest, perfect scribe of the law of the God of heaven, perfect peace, and to Cheenet.
13 By me is given commandment, that any of the people of Israel and of his priests and Levites in my realm, who desire of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee.
14 For thou art sent on behalf of the king and of his seven counsellors, to inquire of Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of thy God which is in thy hand,
15 and to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counsellors freely offer unto the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem,
16 and all the silver and gold that thou canst find in all the province of Babylon, with the freewill offering of the people and of the priests, who offer willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem;
17 Therefore, with diligence thou shalt buy with this money bullocks, rams, lambs, with their presents and their drink offerings, and offer them upon the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem.
18 And whatever shall seem good to thee and to thy brethren, to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, that do after the will of your God.
19 The vessels also that are given thee for the service of the house of thy God, thou shalt restore before the God of Jerusalem.
20 And whatever else shall be needful for the house of thy God, which thou shalt have need to bestow, bestow it out of the king’s treasure house.
21 And by me, Artaxerxes, the king, is given the commandment to all the treasurers who are on the other side of the river, that whatever Ezra, the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, shall require of you, it be done speedily,
22 unto 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.
23 Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be speedily done for the house of the God of heaven: for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?
24 Also unto you we cause it to be known, that regarding all of the priests and Levites, singers, porters, Nethinims, and ministers of the house of this God, no one shall be able to impose toll, tribute, or custom, upon them.
25 And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, that is in thy hand, set as judges and governors, who govern all the people that are on the other side of the river, all such as know the laws of thy God, and teach those that do not know them.
26 And whoever will not do the law of thy God and the law of the king, let them be judged speedily, whether it be unto death or to banishment or to confiscation of goods or to imprisonment.
27 ¶ Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to honour the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem,
28 and has extended mercy unto me before the king, and his counsellors and before all the king’s mighty princes. And I, comforted according to the hand of the LORD my God upon me, gathered together the principals of Israel to go up with me.
8 ¶ These are now the heads of their fathers, and this is the genealogy of those that went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes, the king:
2 Of the sons of Phinehas; Gershon: of the sons of Ithamar; Daniel: of the sons of David; Hattush.
3 Of the sons of Shechaniah, of the sons of Pharosh; Zechariah: and with him were reckoned by genealogy of the males one hundred and fifty.
4 Of the sons of Pahathmoab; Elihoenai, the son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males.
5 Of the sons of Shechaniah; the son of Jahaziel, and with him three hundred males.
6 Of the sons also of Adin; Ebed, the son of Jonathan, and with him fifty males.
7 And of the sons of Elam; Jeshaiah, the son of Athaliah, and with him seventy males.
8 And of the sons of Shephatiah; Zebadiah, the son of Michael, and with him eighty males.
9 Of the sons of Joab; Obadiah, the son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males.
10 And of the sons of Shelomith; the son of Josiphiah, and with him one hundred and sixty males.
11 And of the sons of Bebai; Zechariah, the son of Bebai, and with him twenty-eight males.
12 And of the sons of Azgad; Johanan, the son of Hakkatan, and with him one hundred and ten males.
13 And of the last sons of Adonikam, whose names are these: Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them sixty males.
14 Of the sons also of Bigvai; Uthai and Zabbud and with them seventy males.
15 And I gathered them together to the river that runs to Ahava, and there we encamped three days, and having searched among the people and the priests, I did not find there any of the sons of Levi.
16 Then I commissioned Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, principals, also Joiarib and Elnathan, men of understanding;
17 and I sent them unto Iddo, the captain at the place of Casiphia, and I put words in their mouth that they should speak unto Iddo and to his brethren, the Nethinims, at the place of Casiphia, that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of our God.
18 And by the good hand of our God upon us, they brought us a man of understanding, of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel; and Sherebiah, with his sons and his brethren, eighteen;
19 and Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brethren and their sons, twenty;
20 also of the Nethinims, whom David and the princes had appointed for the ministry of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinims: all of them were expressed by name.
21 ¶ Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance.
22 For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to defend us against the enemy in the way because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all those that seek him for good; but his power and his wrath is against all those that forsake him.
23 So we fasted and besought our God for this, and he was intreated of us.
24 ¶ Then I separated twelve of the principals of the priests, Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them,
25 and weighed unto them the silver and the gold and the vessels, the offering for the house of our God, which the king and his counsellors and his princes and all those that were of Israel had offered.
26 I weighed, therefore, unto their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver and silver vessels of one hundred talents and of gold one hundred talents;
27 also twenty basins of gold, of a thousand drams, and two vessels of clean brass, precious as gold.
28 And I said unto them, Ye are holiness unto the LORD; the vessels are holiness also; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering unto the LORD God of your fathers.
29 Watch and keep them until you weigh them before the princes of the priests and the Levites and of the princes of the fathers of Israel in Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the LORD.
30 The priests and the Levites received the weight of the silver and of the gold and of the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem unto the house of our God.
31 ¶ And we departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth of the first month to go to Jerusalem; and the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and of such as lay in wait by the way.
32 And we came to Jerusalem and abode there three days.
33 Now on the fourth day the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed in the house of our God by 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, Levites;
34 by number and by weight of each one; and all the weight was written at that time.
35 Those that had been carried away, the sons of the captivity, offered burnt offerings unto the God of Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, twelve he goats as sin; all this was a burnt offering unto the LORD.
36 And they delivered the king’s commissions unto the king’s lieutenants and captains of the other side the river, which favoured the people and the house of God.
9 ¶ Now when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites, doing according to their abominations,
2 for they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, and the holy seed is mingled with the peoples of the lands; and the hand of the princes and of the governors has been foremost in this trespass.
3 And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle and plucked off of the hair of my head and of my beard and sat down astonied.
4 Then each one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel because of the transgression of those that had been carried away were assembled unto me; and I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice.
5 ¶ And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my affliction; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God
6 and said, O my God, I am confused and ashamed to lift up my face to thee, my God, for our iniquities have multiplied over our head, and our guiltiness is grown up unto heaven.
7 Since the days of our fathers, we have been in great guiltiness unto 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 spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.
8 And now as for a brief moment there has been the mercy of the LORD our God, to leave us an escape, and that we may be given a stake in his holy sanctuary that our God may illuminate our eyes and give us a little preservation of life in our bondage.
9 For we were slaves; yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage, but has extended mercy over us before the king of Persia, that we may be given life to lift up the house of our God and to cause the desolations thereof to be restored and to give us a wall of protection in Judah and in Jerusalem.
10 And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken thy commandments,
11 which thou hast commanded by thy slaves the prophets, saying, The land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land because of the uncleanness of the people of the lands, for the abominations with which they have filled it from one end to another with their uncleanness.
12 Now, therefore, do not give your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their peace or their prosperity forever, that ye may be strengthened, and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your sons forever.
13 And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guiltiness, seeing that thou our God hast intervened that we no longer be oppressed because of our iniquities and hast given us such an escape as this,
14 should we again break thy commandments and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? Would thou not be angry with us until thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escape?
15 O LORD God of Israel, thou art righteous; for we have an escape, as it is this day, behold us here, before thee in our guiltiness; for we cannot stand before thee because of this.
10 ¶ Now as Ezra prayed and confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children; and the people wept very sore.
2 Then Shechaniah, the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We have rebelled against our God and have taken strange women of the peoples of the land, but there is yet hope for Israel concerning this thing.
3 Now, therefore, let us make a covenant with our God to send away all the women and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of the Lord and of those that fear the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.
4 Arise; for this matter belongs unto thee; we also will be with thee: be of good courage, and do it.
5 Then Ezra arose and made the princes of the priests, the Levites, and all Israel, swear that they should do according to this word. And they swore.
6 ¶ Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Johanan, the son of Eliashib; and when he came there, he ate no bread, nor drank water; for he mourned because of the transgression of those that had been carried away.
7 And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto all the sons of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together unto Jerusalem
8 and that whoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and of the elders, all his substance should be forfeited and himself separated from the congregation of those that had been carried away.
9 Thus were all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered together unto Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth of the month; and all the people sat in the plaza of the house of God, trembling because of this matter and because of the rains.
10 And Ezra, the priest, stood up, and said unto them, Ye have transgressed because ye have taken strange women, thus increasing the guiltiness of Israel.
11 Now, therefore, make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers and do his will; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the lands and from the strange women.
12 Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, Let it be done according to thy word.
13 But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and there is no strength to stand in the street; neither is this a work of one day or two; for we are many that have transgressed in this thing.
14 Let our rulers of all the congregation now stand, and let all those who have taken strange women in our cities come at appointed times, and with them the elders of each city and the judges thereof, until the fierce wrath of our God for this matter is turned from us.
15 ¶ Jonathan, the son of Asahel, and Jahaziah, the son of Tikvah, were placed over this matter; and Meshullam and Shabbethai, the Levites, helped them.
16 And the sons of the captivity did so. And Ezra, the priest, and the men who were the heads of the fathers in the house of their fathers were separated, all of them by their names, and sat down in the first day of the tenth month to inquire into the matter.
17 And they finished, with all the men that had taken strange women by the first day of the first month.
18 And among the sons of the priests that had taken strange women these were found: Of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and of his brethren: Maaseiah and Eliezer, and Jarib and Gedaliah.
19 And they gave their hands that they would send away their women; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their guiltiness.
20 And of the sons of Immer; Hanani and Zebadiah.
21 And of the sons of Harim; Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, and Uzziah.
22 And of the sons of Pashur; Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethaneel, Jozabad, and Elasah.
23 And of the sons of the Levites; Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah, (the same is Kelita,) Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.
24 And of the singers; Eliashib; and of the porters; Shallum, Telem, and Uri.
25 Likewise of Israel: of the sons of Parosh; Ramiah, Jeziah, Malchiah, Miamin, Eleazar, Malchijah, and Benaiah.
26 And of the sons of Elam; Mattaniah, Zechariah, Jehiel, Abdi, Jeremoth, and Eliah.
27 And of the sons of Zattu; Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Jeremoth, Zabad, and Aziza.
28 And of the sons of Bebai; Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, and Athlai.
29 And of the sons of Bani; Meshullam, Malluch, Adaiah, Jashub, Sheal, and Ramoth.
30 And of the sons of Pahath-moab; Adna, Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezaleel, Binnui, and Manasseh.
31 And of the sons of Harim; Eliezer, Ishijah, Malchiah, Shemaiah, Shimeon,
32 Benjamin, Malluch, and Shemariah.
33 Of the sons of Hashum; Mattenai, Mattathah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, and Shimei.
34 Of the sons of Bani; Maadai, Amram, and Uel,
35 Benaiah, Bedeiah, Chelluh,
36 Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib,
37 Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasau,
38 Bani, Binnui, Shimei,
39 Shelemiah, Nathan, and Adaiah,
40 Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai,
41 Azareel, Shelemiah, Shemariah,
42 Shallum, Amariah, and Joseph.
43 And of the sons of Nebo; Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jadau, Joel, and Benaiah.
44 All these had taken strange women, and there were women of theirs who had given birth to sons.
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