51
For I was ashamed to ask the king for foot soldiers and cavalry and an escort to keep us safe from our adversaries;
52
for we had said to the king, "The power of our Lord will be with those who seek him, and will support them in every way."
53
And again we prayed to our Lord about these things, and we found him very merciful.
54
Then I set apart twelve of the leaders of the priests, Sherebiah and Hashabiah, and ten of their kinsmen with them;
55
and I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the holy vessels of the house of our Lord, which the king himself and his counselors and the nobles and all Israel had given.
56
I weighed and gave to them six hundred fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels worth a hundred talents, and a hundred talents of gold,
57
and twenty golden bowls, and twelve bronze vessels of fine bronze that glittered like gold.
58
And I said to them, "You are holy to the Lord, and the vessels are holy, and the silver and the gold are vowed to the Lord, the Lord of our ancestors.
59
Be watchful and on guard until you deliver them to the leaders of the priests and the Levites, and to the heads of the ancestral houses of Israel, in Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of our Lord."
60
So the priests and the Levites who took the silver and the gold and the vessels that had been in Jerusalem carried them to the temple of the Lord.
61
We left the river Theras on the twelfth day of the first month; and we arrived in Jerusalem by the mighty hand of our Lord, which was upon us; he delivered us from every enemy on the way, and so we came to Jerusalem.