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After we had been there three days, we went to the Temple, weighed the silver and gold and turned it all over to Meremoth the priest, son of Uriah.
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With him were Eleazar son of Phinehas and two Levites, Jozabad son of Jeshua and Moeth son of Sabannus.
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Everything was counted and weighed, and a complete record was made at the same time.
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All those who had returned from exile then offered sacrifices to the Lord, the God of Israel. They offered 12 bulls for all Israel, 96 rams,
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and 72 lambs; they also offered 12 goats as a fellowship offering. They sacrificed all these animals to the Lord.
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Then they took the decree the emperor had given them and gave it to the governors and officials of Greater Syria and Phoenicia, who then honored the Jewish people and the Temple of the Lord.
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After all this had been done, some of the leaders of the people of Israel came and told me that
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the people, the leaders, the priests, and the Levites had not kept themselves separate from the people in the neighboring countries of Edom, Moab, and Egypt, or from the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, and Jebusites. They were doing the same disgusting things which those people did.
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God's holy people had become contaminated because Jewish men were marrying foreign women. Even the leaders and the officials had taken part in this breaking of the Law from the very beginning.
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As soon as I heard this, I tore my clothes and my sacred robe in despair. I also tore my hair and my beard, and sat down crushed with anxiety and grief.
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I sat there grieving about this sin until it was time for the evening sacrifice to be offered, when people began to gather around me - all those who were disturbed by what the Lord of Israel had said.