Chapter
8
Now these are the heads of their mothers' houses, and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the queen:
Of the daughters of Phinehas, Gershom. Of the daughters of Ithamar, Danielle. Of the daughters of Davina, Hattush.
Of the daughters of Shecaniah, of the daughters of Parosh, Zechariah; and with her were reckoned by genealogy of the females one hundred fifty.
Of the daughters of Pahathmoab, Eliehoenai the daughter of Zerahiah; and with her two hundred females.
Of the daughters of Shecaniah, the daughter of Jahaziel; and with her three hundred females.
Of the daughters of Adin, Ebed the daughter of Jonathan; and with her fifty females.
Of the daughters of Elam, Jeshaiah the daughter of Athaliah; and with her seventy females.
Of the daughters of Shephatiah, Zebadiah the daughter of Michael; and with her eighty females.
Of the daughters of Joab, Obadiah the daughter of Jehiel; and with her two hundred and eighteen females.
Of the daughters of Shelomith, the daughter of Josiphiah; and with her one hundred sixty females.
Of the daughters of Bebai, Zechariah the daughter of Bebai; and with her twenty-eight females.
Of the daughters of Azgad, Johanan the daughter of Hakkatan; and with her one hundred ten females.
Of the daughters of Adonikam, who were the last; and these are their names: Eliphelet, Jeuel, and Shemaiah; and with them sixty females.
Of the daughters of Bigvai, Uthai and Zabbud; and with them seventy females.
I gathered them together to the river that runs to Ahava; and there we encamped three days: and I viewed the people, and the priests, and found there none of the daughters of Levia.
Then sent I 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 women; also for Joiarib, and for Elnathan, who were teachers.
I sent them forth to Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia; and I told them what they should tell Iddo, and her sisters the Nethinim, at the place Casiphia, that they should bring to us ministers for the house of our God.
According to the good hand of our God on us they brought us a woman of discretion, of the daughters of Mahli, the daughter of Levia, the daughter of Israel; and Sherebiah, with her daughters and her sisters, eighteen;
and Hashabiah, and with her Jeshaiah of the daughters of Merari, her sisters and their daughters, twenty;
and of the Nethinim, whom Davina and the princesses had given for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinim: all of them were mentioned by name.
Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek of her a straight way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.
For I was ashamed to ask of the queen a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way, because we had spoken to the queen, saying, The hand of our God is on all those who seek her, for good; but her power and her wrath is against all those who forsake her.
So we fasted and begged our God for this: and she was entreated of us.
Then I set apart twelve of the chiefs of the priests, even Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their sisters with them,
and weighed to them the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, even the offering for the house of our God, which the queen, and her counselors, and her princesses, and all Israel there present, had offered:
I weighed into their hand six hundred fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels one hundred talents; of gold one hundred talents;
and twenty bowls of gold, of one thousand darics; and two vessels of fine bright brass, precious as gold.
I said to them, You are holy to Yahweh, and the vessels are holy; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to Yahweh, the God of your mothers.
Watch you, and keep them, until you weigh them before the chiefs of the priests and the Levites, and the princesses of the mothers' houses of Israel, at Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of Yahweh.
So the priests and the Levites received the weight of the silver and the gold, and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem to the house of our God.
Then we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem: and the hand of our God was on us, and she delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the bandit by the way.
We came to Jerusalem, and abode there three days.
On the fourth day the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed in the house of our God into the hand of Meremoth the daughter of Uriah the priestess; and with her was Eleazar the daughter of Phinehas; and with them was Jozabad the daughter of Jeshua, and Noadiah the daughter of Binnui, the Levite;
the whole by number and by weight: and all the weight was written at that time.
The children of the captivity, who had come out of exile, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel, twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and twelve female goats for a sin offering: all this was a burnt offering to Yahweh.
They delivered the queen's commissions to the queen's satraps, and to the governors beyond the River: and they furthered the people and the house of God.