The Daily Audio Bible

²¹ Then I called for a fast there at the Ahava River so that we might submit before our God and ask of him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our possessions. ²² I had been ashamed to ask the king for a group of soldiers and cavalry to help us in facing enemies on the way, because we had told the king, “The power of God favors all who seek him, but his fierce wrath is against all who abandon him.” ²³ So we fasted and prayed to our God for this, and he responded to us.

²⁴ Then I selected twelve of the leading priests, Sherebiah and Hashabiah and ten of their relatives with them. ²⁵ I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the equipment, the offering for the house of our God that the king, his counselors, his officials, and all Israel present there had offered. ²⁶ I weighed out into their keeping six hundred fifty kikkars of silver, one hundred silver containers weighing a certain number of kikkars, one hundred kikkars of gold, ²⁷ twenty gold bowls worth one thousand darics, and two containers of highly polished copper, which were as precious as gold. ²⁸ I said to them, “You are holy to the Lord, and the equipment is holy; the silver and the gold are a spontaneous gift to the Lord, the God of your ancestors. ²⁹ Guard them carefully until you weigh them out in Jerusalem before the officials of the priests, the Levites, and the heads of the families of Israel, within the rooms of the Lord’s house.” ³⁰ So the priests and the Levites received the silver and the gold and the utensils as they were weighed out, in order to bring them to Jerusalem, to our God’s house.

³¹ Then we left the Ahava River on the twelfth day of the first month^[a] to go to Jerusalem. The power of our God was with us; he saved us from the power of the enemy and ambushes along the way.

Finishing the journey

³² After arriving in Jerusalem, we rested there three days. ³³ On the fourth day, the silver and the gold and the equipment were weighed out in our God’s house into the care of the priest named Meremoth, Uriah’s son, together with Eleazar, Phinehas’ son; and the Levites, Jozabad, Jeshua’s son, and Noadiah, Binnui’s son. ³⁴ Everything was counted and weighed, and the total weight was recorded.

³⁵ At that time, those who had come from the captivity, the returned exiles, offered as entirely burned offerings to the God of Israel twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and twelve male goats as a purification offering. All this was an entirely burned offering to the Lord. ³⁶ They also delivered the king’s orders to the royal chief administrators and governors of the province Beyond the River, who supported the people and God’s house.

Facing a communal problem

9 When these tasks were finished, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites haven’t kept themselves separate from the peoples of the neighboring lands with their detestable practices; namely, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. ² They’ve taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and the holy descendants have become mixed with the neighboring peoples.^[b] Moreover, the officials and leaders have led the way in this unfaithfulness.”

³ When I heard this, I tore my clothes and cloak, pulled out hair from my head and beard, and sat down in shock. ⁴ Then all those who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me on account of the transgression of the returned exiles while I remained sitting in shock until the evening sacrifice.

Ezra prays

⁵ At the time of the evening sacrifice, I ended my penitential acts. While still wearing^[c] my torn clothes and cloak, I fell upon my knees, spread out my hands to the Lord my God, ⁶ and said,

Confronting sexual immorality in the church

5 Everyone has heard that there is sexual immorality among you. This is a type of immorality that isn’t even heard of among the Gentiles—a man is having sex with his father’s wife! ² And you’re proud of yourselves instead of being so upset that the one who did this thing is expelled from your community. ³ Though I’m absent physically, I’m present in the spirit and I’ve already judged the man who did this as if I were present. ⁴ When you meet together in the name of our Lord Jesus, I’ll be present in spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus. ⁵ At that time we need to hand this man over to Satan to destroy his human weakness so that his spirit might be saved on the day of the Lord.

⁶ Your bragging isn’t good! Don’t you know that a tiny grain of yeast makes a whole batch of dough rise? ⁷ Clean out the old yeast so you can be a new batch of dough, given that you’re supposed to be unleavened bread. Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed, ⁸ so let’s celebrate the feast with the unleavened bread of honesty and truth, not with old yeast or with the yeast of evil and wickedness.

⁹ I wrote to you in my earlier letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. ¹⁰ But I wasn’t talking about the sexually immoral people in the outside world by any means—or the greedy, or the swindlers, or people who worship false gods—otherwise, you would have to leave the world entirely! ¹¹ But now I’m writing to you not to associate with anyone who calls themselves “brother” or “sister” who is sexually immoral, greedy, someone who worships false gods, an abusive person, a drunk, or a swindler. Don’t even eat with anyone like this. ¹² What do I care about judging outsiders? Isn’t it your job to judge insiders? ¹³ God will judge outsiders. Expel the evil one from among you!^[a]

Psalm 31

For the music leader. A psalm of David.