¹Now these are their paternal heads and the registration by genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylon in the reign of Artaxerxes the king: ²of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom; of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel; of the sons of David, Hattush; ³of the sons of Shechaniah, of the sons of Parosh, Zechariah, and with him one hundred and fifty males were registered by genealogy; ⁴of the sons of Pahath-Moab, Eliehoenai the son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males; ⁵of the sons of Shechaniah, the son of Jahaziel, and with him three hundred males; ⁶and of the sons of Adin, Ebed the son of Jonathan, and with him fifty males; ⁷and of the sons of Elam, Isaiah the son of Athaliah, and with him seventy males; ⁸and of the sons of Shephatiah, Zebadiah the son of Michael, and with him eighty males; ⁹and of the sons of Joab, Obadiah the son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males; ¹⁰and of the sons of Shelomith, the son of Josiphiah, and with him one hundred and sixty males; ¹¹and of the sons of Bebai, Zechariah the son of Bebai, and with him twenty-eight males; ¹²and of the sons of Azgad, Johanan the son of Hakkatan, and with him one hundred and ten males; ¹³and of the last sons of Adonikam – these are their names – Eliphelet, Jeiel and Shemaiah, and with them sixty males; ¹⁴and of the sons of Bigvai, Uthai and Zaccur, and with them seventy males. ¹⁵And I gathered them at the river which goes to Ahava, where we encamped for three days, and I took stock of the people and of the priests, and I did not find any sons of Levi there. ¹⁶So I sent for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah and Elnathan and Jarib and Elnathan and Nathan and Zechariah and Meshullam – head men – and for Joiarib and Elnathan – intelligent men. ¹⁷And I sent them out to Iddo the head man in Casiphia-the-Resort, and I put words in their mouth to say to Iddo and his brother, the temple-servants in Casiphia-the-Resort, to bring us servants for the house of our God. ¹⁸And with the good care of our God over us, they brought us a sensible man, one of the sons of Mahli the son of Levi the son of Israel, and Sherebiah and his sons and his brothers – eighteen of them, ¹⁹and Hashabiah, and with him Isaiah one of the sons of Merari, his brothers and their sons – twenty of them, ²⁰and of the temple-servants whom David and the officials appointed for the work of the Levites – two hundred and twenty temple-servants – all of them specified by their names. ²¹And I called a fast there, at the River Ahava, to afflict ourselves before our God, and to seek the right way from him, for us and for our little ones and all that belong to us. ²²For I was ashamed to ask for soldiers and horsemen from the king to help protect us from an enemy on the way, for we had spoken to the king and said, “The hand of our God is favourably on all who seek him, but his vehemence and anger are on all who desert him.” ²³So we fasted and asked our God about this, and he was entreated by us. ²⁴Then I separated twelve of the high-ranking priests, Sherebiah, Hashabiah and ten of their brothers with them. ²⁵And I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the articles – the gifts for the house of our God which the king and his advisers and his officials and all Israel who were present had donated. ²⁶And I weighed out into their hands six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver articles to the value of one hundred talents, and one hundred talents of gold, ²⁷and twenty golden bowls, to the value of one thousand darics, and two articles of high quality gold-coloured copper, as sought after as gold. ²⁸And I said to them, “You are holy to the Lord, and the articles are holy, and the silver and the gold are a freewill-offering to the Lord God of your fathers. ²⁹Watch over it and guard it until you weigh it before the high-ranking priests and the Levites and the paternal officials of Israel in Jerusalem, in the offices of the house of the Lord.” ³⁰So the priests and the Levites took the weighed-out amount of silver and gold and the articles, to bring them to Jerusalem, to the house of our God. ³¹Then we set off 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 he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the ambusher along the road. ³²And we arrived in Jerusalem, and we stayed there for three days. ³³Then on the fourth day, the silver and the gold and the articles were weighed in the house of our God by 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, the Levites. ³⁴Everything was done by number and by weight, and the entire weight was written down at that time. ³⁵Those who came back from captivity – the deportees – made burnt offerings to the God of Israel: twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs and twelve goats as a sin-offering. Everything was a burnt offering to the Lord. ³⁶And the king's edicts were delivered to the king's satraps and the governors of the region on the far side of the river, and they supported the people and the house of God.