May 27
     Ezra 1:1 — 3:13

Ezra

1 And in the first year of Cyrus the king of Persia, that Jehovah’s word from the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Jehovah roused the spirit of Cyrus the king of Persia so that he caused a cry to pass through all his realm, and also in writing, saying:

2 “This is what Cyrus the king of Persia has said, ‘All the kingdoms of the earth Jehovah the God of the heavens has given me, and he himself has commissioned me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Whoever there is among YOU of all his people, may his God prove to be with him. So let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of Jehovah the God of Israel—he is the [true] God—which was in Jerusalem. 4 As for anyone that is left from all the places where he is residing as an alien, let the men of his place assist him with silver and with gold and with goods and with domestic animals along with the voluntary offering for the house of the [true] God, which was in Jerusalem.’”

5 Then the heads of the fathers of Judah and of Benjamin and the priests and the Levites rose up, even everyone whose spirit the [true] God had roused, to go up and rebuild the house of Jehovah, which was in Jerusalem. 6 As for all those round about them, they strengthened their hands with utensils of silver, with gold, with goods and with domestic animals and with choice things, besides all that which was voluntarily offered.

7 Also, King Cyrus himself brought forth the utensils of the house of Jehovah, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought out from Jerusalem and then put in the house of his god. 8 And Cyrus the king of Persia proceeded to bring them forth under the control of Mithredath the treasurer and to number them out to Sheshbazzar the chieftain of Judah.

9 Now these are the numbers of them: thirty basket-shaped vessels of gold, a thousand basket-shaped vessels of silver, twenty-nine replacement vessels, 10 thirty small bowls of gold, four hundred and ten small secondary bowls of silver, a thousand other utensils. 11 All the utensils of gold and of silver were five thousand four hundred. Everything Sheshbazzar brought up, along with the bringing up of the exiled people out of Babylon to Jerusalem.

2 And these were the sons of the jurisdictional district that went up out of the captivity of the exiled people whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had taken into exile at Babylon and who later returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each one to his own city; 2 those who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah.

The number of the men of the people of Israel: 3 The sons of Parosh, two thousand one hundred and seventy-two; 4 the sons of Shephatiah, three hundred and seventy-two; 5 the sons of Arah, seven hundred and seventy-five; 6 the sons of Pahath-moab, of the sons of Jeshua [and] Joab, two thousand eight hundred and twelve; 7 the sons of Elam, a thousand two hundred and fifty-four; 8 the sons of Zattu, nine hundred and forty-five; 9 the sons of Zaccai, seven hundred and sixty; 10 the sons of Bani, six hundred and forty-two; 11 the sons of Bebai, six hundred and twenty-three; 12 the sons of Azgad, a thousand two hundred and twenty-two; 13 the sons of Adonikam, six hundred and sixty-six; 14 the sons of Bigvai, two thousand and fifty-six; 15 the sons of Adin, four hundred and fifty-four; 16 the sons of Ater, of Hezekiah, ninety-eight; 17 the sons of Bezai, three hundred and twenty-three; 18 the sons of Jorah, a hundred and twelve; 19 the sons of Hashum, two hundred and twenty-three; 20 the sons of Gibbar, ninety-five; 21 the sons of Bethlehem, a hundred and twenty-three; 22 the men of Netophah, fifty-six; 23 the men of Anathoth, a hundred and twenty-eight; 24 the sons of Azmaveth, forty-two; 25 the sons of Kiriath-jearim, Chephirah and Beeroth, seven hundred and forty-three; 26 the sons of Ramah and Geba, six hundred and twenty-one; 27 the men of Michmas, a hundred and twenty-two; 28 the men of Bethel and Ai, two hundred and twenty-three; 29 the sons of Nebo, fifty-two; 30 the sons of Magbish, a hundred and fifty-six; 31 the sons of the other Elam, a thousand two hundred and fifty-four; 32 the sons of Harim, three hundred and twenty; 33 the sons of Lod, Hadid and Ono, seven hundred and twenty-five; 34 the sons of Jericho, three hundred and forty-five; 35 the sons of Senaah, three thousand six hundred and thirty.

36 The priests: The sons of Jedaiah of the house of Jeshua nine hundred and seventy-three; 37 the sons of Immer, a thousand and fifty-two; 38 the sons of Pashhur, a thousand two hundred and forty-seven; 39 the sons of Harim, a thousand and seventeen.

40 The Levites: The sons of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the sons of Hodaviah, seventy-four. 41 The singers, the sons of Asaph, a hundred and twenty-eight. 42 The sons of the gatekeepers, the sons of Shallum, the sons of Ater, the sons of Talmon, the sons of Akkub, the sons of Hatita, the sons of Shobai, all together, a hundred and thirty-nine.

43 The Nethinim: The sons of Ziha, the sons of Hasupha, the sons of Tabbaoth, 44 the sons of Keros, the sons of Siaha, the sons of Padon, 45 the sons of Lebanah, the sons of Hagabah, the sons of Akkub, 46 the sons of Hagab, the sons of Salmai, the sons of Hanan, 47 the sons of Giddel, the sons of Gahar, the sons of Reaiah, 48 the sons of Rezin, the sons of Nekoda, the sons of Gazzam, 49 the sons of Uzza, the sons of Paseah, the sons of Besai, 50 the sons of Asnah, the sons of Meunim, the sons of Nephusim; 51 the sons of Bakbuk, the sons of Hakupha, the sons of Harhur, 52 the sons of Bazluth, the sons of Mehida, the sons of Harsha, 53 the sons of Barkos, the sons of Sisera, the sons of Temah, 54 the sons of Neziah, the sons of Hatipha.

55 The sons of the servants of Solomon: The sons of Sotai, the sons of Sophereth, the sons of Peruda, 56 the sons of Jaalah, the sons of Darkon, the sons of Giddel, 57 the sons of Shephatiah, the sons of Hattil, the sons of Pochereth-hazzebaim, the sons of Ami.

58 All the Nethinim and the sons of the servants of Solomon were three hundred and ninety-two.

59 And these were the ones going up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addon [and] Immer, and they proved unable to tell the house of their fathers and their origin, whether they were of Israel: 60 the sons of Delaiah, the sons of Tobiah, the sons of Nekoda, six hundred and fifty-two. 61 And of the sons of the priests: the sons of Habaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, the sons of Barzillai, who took a wife from the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite and came to be called by their name. 62 These were the ones that looked for their register to establish their genealogy publicly, and they did not find themselves, so that they were barred as polluted from the priesthood. 63 Consequently the Tirshatha said to them that they could not eat from the most holy things until a priest stood up with Urim and Thummim.

64 The entire congregation as one group was forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty, 65 apart from their men slaves and their slave girls, these being seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven; and they had two hundred male singers and female singers. 66 Their horses were seven hundred and thirty-six, their mules two hundred and forty-five, 67 their camels four hundred and thirty-five, [their] asses six thousand seven hundred and twenty.

68 And certain ones of the heads of the paternal houses, on coming to the house of Jehovah, which was in Jerusalem, made voluntary offerings to the house of the [true] God, to cause it to stand on its own site. 69 According to their power they gave gold for the working supplies, sixty-one thousand drachmas, and silver, five thousand minas, and a hundred robes of priests. 70 And the priests and the Levites and some of the people, and the singers and the gatekeepers and the Nethinim took up dwelling in their cities, and all Israel in their cities.

3 When the seventh month arrived the sons of Israel were in [their] cities. And the people began to gather themselves as one man to Jerusalem. 2 And Jeshua the son of Jehozadak and his brothers the priests and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his brothers proceeded to rise up and build the altar of the God of Israel, to offer up burnt sacrifices upon it, according to what is written in the law of Moses the man of the [true] God.

3 So they established the altar firmly upon its own site, for fright [came] upon them because of the peoples of the lands, and they began offering up burnt sacrifices to Jehovah upon it, the burnt sacrifices of the morning and of the evening. 4 Then they held the festival of booths according to what is written, with the burnt sacrifices day by day in number according to the rule of what was due each day. 5 And afterward there was the constant burnt offering and that for the new moons and for all the sanctified festival seasons of Jehovah and for everyone that willingly offered a voluntary offering to Jehovah. 6 From the first day of the seventh month on they started to offer up burnt sacrifices to Jehovah, when the foundation of Jehovah’s temple itself had not yet been laid.

7 And they proceeded to give money to the cutters and to the craftsmen, and eatables and drink and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians, to bring cedar timbers from Lebanon to the sea at Joppa, according to the permission granted by Cyrus the king of Persia to them.

8 And in the second year of their coming to the house of the [true] God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jehozadak and the rest of their brothers, the priests and the Levites, and all those who had come out of the captivity to Jerusalem started; and they now put in positions the Levites from twenty years of age upward to act as supervisors over the work of the house of Jehovah. 9 Accordingly Jeshua, his sons and his brothers, [and] Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, stood up as one group to act as supervisors over the doers of the work in the house of the [true] God, [also] the sons of Henadad, their sons and their brothers, the Levites.

10 When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of Jehovah, then the priests in official clothing, with the trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph, with the cymbals, stood up to praise Jehovah according to the direction of David the king of Israel. 11 And they began to respond by praising and giving thanks to Jehovah, “for he is good, for his loving-kindness toward Israel is to time indefinite.” As for all the people, they shouted with a loud shout in praising Jehovah over the laying of the foundation of the house of Jehovah. 12 And many of the priests and the Levites and the heads of the paternal houses, the old men that had seen the former house, were weeping with a loud voice at the laying of the foundation of this house before their eyes, while many others were raising the voice in shouting for joy. 13 Hence the people were not distinguishing the sound of the shout of rejoicing from the sound of the weeping of the people, for the people were shouting with a loud shout, and the sound itself was heard even to a great distance.