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EZR A 9
page 423
also sent Hashabiah, together with Jeshaiah
from the descendants of Merari, and twenty of
his sons and brothers, 20 and 220 Temple servants. The Temple servants were assistants to
the Levites—a group of Temple workers first
instituted by King David and his officials. They
were all listed by name.
21 And there by the Ahava Canal, I gave orders
for all of us to fast and humble ourselves before
our God. We prayed that he would give us a safe
journey and protect us, our children, and our
goods as we traveled. 22 For I was ashamed to
ask the king for soldiers and horsemen* to accompany us and protect us from enemies along
the way. After all, we had told the king, “Our
God’s hand of protection is on all who worship
him, but his fierce anger rages against those
who abandon him.” 23 So we fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would take care of
us, and he heard our prayer.
24 I appointed twelve leaders of the
priests—Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten other
priests—25 to be in charge of transporting the
silver, the gold, the gold bowls, and the other
items that the king, his council, his officials,
and all the people of Israel had presented for
the Temple of God. 26 I weighed the treasure as
I gave it to them and found the totals to be as
follows:
27
24 tons* of silver,
7,500 pounds* of silver articles,
7,500 pounds of gold,
20 gold bowls, equal in value to 1,000 gold
coins,*
2 fine articles of polished bronze, as precious
as gold.
28 And I said to these priests, “You and these
treasures have been set apart as holy to the
Lord. This silver and gold is a voluntary offering to the Lord, the God of our ancestors.
29 Guard these treasures well until you present
them to the leading priests, the Levites, and
the leaders of Israel, who will weigh them
at the storerooms of the Lord’s Temple in Jerusalem.” 30 So the priests and the Levites accepted the task of transporting these treasures
of silver and gold to the Temple of our God in
Jerusalem.
31 We broke camp at the Ahava Canal on
April 19* and started off to Jerusalem. And the
gracious hand of our God protected us and
saved us from enemies and bandits along the
way. 32 So we arrived safely in Jerusalem, where
we rested for three days.
8:22 Or charioteers. 8:26a Hebrew 650 talents [22 metric tons].
8:26b Hebrew 100 talents [3,400 kilograms]; also in 8:26c.
8:27 Hebrew 1,000 darics, about 19 pounds or 8.6 kilograms
in weight. 8:31 Hebrew on the twelfth day of the first month,
of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This day was April 19,
458 b.c.; also see note on 6:15. 8:36 Hebrew the province
beyond the river.
33 On the fourth day after our arrival, the silver, gold, and other valuables were weighed at
the Temple of our God and entrusted to Meremoth son of Uriah the priest and to Eleazar son
of Phinehas, along with Jozabad son of Jeshua
and Noadiah son of Binnui—both of whom
were Levites. 34 Everything was accounted for
by number and weight, and the total weight
was officially recorded.
35 Then the exiles who had come out of captivity sacrificed burnt offerings to the God of
Israel. They presented twelve bulls for all the
people of Israel, as well as ninety-six rams
and seventy-seven male lambs. They also offered twelve male goats as a sin offering. All
this was given as a burnt offering to the Lord.
36 The king’s decrees were delivered to his highest officers and the governors of the province
west of the Euphrates River,* who then cooperated by supporting the people and the Temple
of God.
Ezra’s Prayer concerning Intermarriage
When these things had been done, the Jewish leaders came to me and said, “Many
of the people of Israel, and even some of the
priests and Levites, have not kept themselves
separate from the other peoples living in the
land. They have taken up the detestable practices of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and
Amorites. 2 For the men of Israel have married
women from these people and have taken them
as wives for their sons. So the holy race has become polluted by these mixed marriages. Worse
yet, the leaders and officials have led the way in
this outrage.”
3 When I heard this, I tore my cloak and my
shirt, pulled hair from my head and beard,
and sat down utterly shocked. 4 Then all who
trembled at the words of the God of Israel came
and sat with me because of this outrage committed by the returned exiles. And I sat there
utterly appalled until the time of the evening
sacrifice.
5 At the time of the sacrifice, I stood up from
where I had sat in mourning with my clothes
torn. I fell to my knees and lifted my hands to
the Lord my God. 6 I prayed,
9
“O my God, I am utterly ashamed; I blush
to lift up my face to you. For our sins are
piled higher than our heads, and our guilt
has reached to the heavens. 7 From the days
of our ancestors until now, we have been
steeped in sin. That is why we and our kings
and our priests have been at the mercy of
the pagan kings of the land. We have been
killed, captured, robbed, and disgraced,
just as we are today.
8 “But now we have been given a brief