Details concerning those returning with Ezra
8
📚These are now the heads of their fathers’ households, and this is the genealogy of those who came up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king: 2 📚of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom; 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 registered a hundred and fifty males; 4 📚of the sons of Pahath-Moab, 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 📚and of the sons 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 a 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 a 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 📚and of the sons of Bigvai, Uthai, and Zaccur, and with them seventy males.No Levites
15 📚And I gathered them together at the river that flows toward Ahava 📖, and for three days we stayed there in tents. And I looked among the people and the priests, and found there none of the sons of Levi. 16 📚Then I sent for Eliezer, for Ariel, for Shemaiah and for Elnathan and for Jarib and for Elnathan and for Nathan and for Zechariah and for Meshullam, chief men, and for Joiarib and for Elnathan, men of understanding. 17 📚And I sent them with an order to Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia, and I told them what they should say to Iddo and to his brethren the Nethinims, at the place Casiphia, that they should bring to us ministers for the house of our God. 18 📚And by the good hand of our God on us they brought us a man of understanding, of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel, namely Sherebiah, with his sons and his brethren, eighteen men; 19 📚and Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brethren and their sons, twenty men; 20 📚also of the Nethinims, whom David and the princes had appointed for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinims. All of them were designated by name.
Prayer for a safe journey
21 📚Then I proclaimed a fast 📖 there, at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. 22 📚For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way, because we had spoken to the king, saying, “The hand of our God is on all those who seek him, bringing good, but his power and his wrath are against all those who forsake him”.
8:22 There are possible dangers lurking every time a child of God makes a journey. It is a wise thing to commit every journey to God and pray for His protection. Compare Ps 20:7; 33:17-19; 34:15, 22; 118:6-7; Rom 8:31. Ezra’s life matched the principles he preached. He was concerned that he should have a consistent testimony before others. He saw that asking the king for protectors for the journey would be an expression of doubt that God would protect them.⚜
23 📚So we fasted and prayed to our God for this, and he heard our prayer.
Preparations for a dangerous journey, arrival in Jerusalem
24 📚Then I separated twelve of the leading priests, Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them, 25 📚and weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the articles, the offering for the house of our God, which the king and his counsellors and his lords, and all Israel there present, had offered. 26 📚I weighed out into their hands six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver articles weighing a hundred talents, and one hundred talents of gold, 27 📚and twenty gold basins worth a thousand drachmas, and two articles of fine bronze, precious as gold.
28 📚And I said to them, “You are holy to the LORD. The articles are also holy, and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the LORD God of your fathers. 29 📚Watch and keep them 📖, until you weigh them in the presence of the chief priests and the Levites, and heads of the fathers’ households of Israel, at Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the LORD”. 30 📚So the priests and the Levites took the weighed silver and the gold and the articles to bring them to Jerusalem to the house of our God.
31 📚Then we set out from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem, and the hand of our God 📖 was on us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and of those who lie in wait along the way. 32 📚And we came to Jerusalem, and stayed there three days.
33 📚Now on the fourth day the silver and the gold and the articles 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 were Jozabad the son of Jeshua and Noadiah the son of Binnui, Levites. 34 Everything was counted by number and by weight, and the whole weight was written down at that time.
35 📚Also the offspring of those who had been carried away, who had come from the captivity, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel: twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, twelve he-goats as a sin offering. All this was a burnt offering to the LORD.
36 📚And they delivered the king’s orders to the king’s lieutenants, and to the governors on this side of the River. And they gave assistance to the people and to the house of God.