The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 These are the heads of their fathers' clans, and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Bavel during the reign of Artach'shashta the king:
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Now these are the heads of families who were listed of those who went up with me from Babylon, when Artaxerxes was king.
2 of the descendants of Pinchas: Gershom; of the descendants of Itamar: Dani'el; of the descendants of David: Hatush;
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Of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom; of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel; of the sons of David, Hattush;
3 of the descendants of Sh'khanyah: of the descendants of Par'osh: Z'kharyah, and with him 150 males officially registered;
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Of the sons of Shecaniah; of the sons of Parosh, Zechariah; and with him were listed a hundred and fifty males.
4 of the descendants of Pachat-Mo'av: Ely'ho'einai the son of Z'rachyah, and with him 200 males;
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Of the sons of Pahath-moab, Eliehoenai, the son of Zerahiah; and with him two hundred males.
5 of the descendants of Sh'khanyah: the son of Yachazi'el, and with him 300 males;
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Of the sons of Shecaniah, the son of Jahaziel; and with him three hundred males.
6 of the descendants of 'Adin: 'Eved the son of Yonatan, and with him 50 males;
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And of the sons of Adin, Ebed, the son of Jonathan; and with him fifty males.
7 of the descendants of 'Eilam: Yesha'yah the son of 'Atalyah, and with him 70 males;
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And of the sons of Elam, Jeshaiah; the son of Athaliah; and with him seventy males.
8 of the descendants of Sh'fatyah: Z'vadyah the son of Mikha'el, and with him 80 males;
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And of the sons of Shephatiah, Zebadiah, the son of Michael; and with him eighty males.
9 of the descendants of Yo'av: 'Ovadyah the son of Yechi'el, and with him 218 males;
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Of the sons of Joab, Obadiah, the son of Jehiel; and with him two hundred and eighteen males.
10 of the descendants of Shlomit: the son of Yosifyah, and with him 160 males;
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And of the sons of Shelomith, the son of Josiphiah; and with him a hundred and sixty males.
11 of the descendants of Bevai: Z'kharyah the son of Bevai, and with him 28 males;
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And of the sons of Bebai, Zechariah, the son of Bebai; and with him twenty-eight males.
12 of the descendants of 'Azgad: Yochanan the son of HaKatan, and with him 110 males;
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And of the sons of Azgad, Johanan, the son of Hakkatan; and with him a hundred and ten males.
13 of the descendants of Adonikam: the younger ones, whose names were Elifelet, Ye'i'el and Sh'ma'yah, and with them 60 males; and
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And of the sons of Adonikam, the last, whose names were Eliphelet, Jeuel, and Shemaiah; and with them sixty males.
14 of the descendants of Bigvai: 'Utai and Zakur, and with them 70 males.
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And of the sons of Bigvai, Uthai and Zabbud; and with them seventy males.
15 I assembled them by the river that runs to Ahava, and we camped there three days. I reviewed the people and the cohanim but found no L'vi'im there.
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And I made them come together by the river flowing to Ahava; and we were there in tents for three days: and after viewing the people and the priests I saw that no sons of Levi were there.
16 So I sent for Eli'ezer, Ari'el, Sh'ma'yah, Elnatan, Yariv, Elnatan, Natan, Z'kharyah and Meshulam, who were leaders, and also for Yoyariv and Elnatan, who were men of discernment.
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Then I sent for Eliezer and Ariel and Shemaiah and Elnathan Jarib and Elnathan and Nathan and Zechariah and Meshullam, all responsible men; and for Joiarib and Elnathan, who were wise men.
17 I gave them instructions for Iddo, the leading man in a place called Kasifya, and told them what to say to Iddo and his brother, who were in charge of Kasifya, so that they would bring us men to minister in the house of our God.
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And I sent them to Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia, and gave them orders what to say to Iddo and his brothers the Nethinim at the place Casiphia, so that they might come back to us with men to do the work of the house of our God.
18 Since the good hand of our God was on us, they brought us Ish-Sekhel from the descendants of Machli the son of Levi, the son of Isra'el; Sherevyah with eighteen of his sons and kinsmen;
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And by the help of our God they got for us Ish-sechel, one of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel; and Sherebiah with his sons and brothers, eighteen;
19 Hashavyah, with Yesha'yah, from the descendants of M'rari, and twenty of his kinsmen and their sons;
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And Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brothers and their sons, twenty;
20 and from the temple servants, whom David and the princes had assigned to serve the L'vi'im, two hundred temple servants, all recorded by name.
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And of the Nethinim, to whom David and the captains had given the work of helping the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinim, all of them specially named.
21 Then, there at the Ahava River, I proclaimed a fast; so that we could humble ourselves before our God and ask a safe journey of him for ourselves, our little ones and all our possessions.
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Then I gave orders for a time of going without food, there by the river Ahava, so that we might make ourselves low before our God in prayer, requesting from him a straight way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance.
22 For I would have been ashamed to ask the king for a detachment of soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies along the road, since we had said to the king, "The hand of our God is on all who seek him, for good; but his power and fury is against all who abandon him."
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For I would not, for shame, make request to the king for a band of armed men and horsemen to give us help against those who might make attacks on us on the way: for we had said to the king, The hand of our God is on his servants for good, but his power and his wrath are against all those who are turned away from him.
23 So we fasted and asked our God for this, and he answered our prayer.
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So we went without food, requesting our God for this: and his ear was open to our prayer.
24 Then I separated twelve of the chief cohanim, along with Sherevyah, Hashavyah and ten of their kinsmen.
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So I put on one side twelve of the chiefs of the priests, Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brothers with them,
25 I weighed out to them the silver, the gold and the utensils for the house of our God contributed by the king, his counselors, his princes and all Isra'el present there.
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And gave to them by weight the silver and the gold and the vessels, all the offering for the house of our God which the king and his wise men and his captains and all Israel there present had given:
26 I weighed out and handed over to them twenty-one-and-a-half tons of silver, three-and-a-third tons of silver articles, three-and-a-third tons of gold,
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Measuring into their hands six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels, a hundred talents' weight, and a hundred talents of gold,
27 twenty gold bowls weighing twenty-one pounds, and two vessels of fine burnished bronze as precious as gold.
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And twenty gold basins, of a thousand darics, and two vessels of the best bright brass, equal in value to gold.
28 Then I told them, "You are consecrated to ADONAI, the articles are holy, and the silver and gold are a voluntary offering for ADONAI the God of your ancestors.
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And I said to them, You are holy to the Lord and the vessels are holy: and the silver and the gold are an offering freely given to the Lord, the God of your fathers.
29 Guard them carefully, until you weigh them before the chief cohanim and L'vi'im and the leaders of the fathers'clans in Yerushalayim, in the rooms of the house of ADONAI."
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Take care of them and keep them, till you put them on the scales before the chiefs of the priests and the Levites and the chiefs of the families of Israel, in Jerusalem, in the rooms of the house of the Lord.
30 So the cohanim and L'vi'im received the consignment of silver and gold and the articles to bring to Yerushalayim, to the house of our God.
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So the priests and the Levites took the weight of silver and gold and the vessels, to take them to Jerusalem into the house of our God.
31 On the twelfth day of the first month, we left the Ahava River to go to Yerushalayim. The hand of our God was on us, and he protected us from enemies and surprise attacks along the road.
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Then we went away 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 gave us salvation from our haters and those who were waiting to make an attack on us by the way.
32 In time, we arrived at Yerushalayim, where we rested for three days.
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And we came to Jerusalem and were there for three days.
33 On the fourth day, the silver, gold and articles were weighed in the house of our God and handed over to M'remot the son of Uriyah the cohen; with him was El'azar the son of Pinchas; and with them were Yozavad the son of Yeshua and No'adyah the son of Binui, who were L'vi'im.
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And on the fourth day, the silver and the gold and the vessels were measured out by weight in the house of our God into the hands 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, the Levites;
34 The entire consignment was numbered and weighed, and at the same time the total weight was recorded.
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All was handed over by number and by weight: and the weight was put on record at that time.
35 The exiles who had returned from captivity offered burnt offerings to the God of Isra'el - twelve young bulls for all Isra'el, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and twelve male goats as a sin offering; all this was a burnt offering for ADONAI.
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And those who had been prisoners, who had come back from a strange land, made burned offerings to the God of Israel, twelve oxen for all Israel, ninety-six male sheep, seventy-seven lambs, twelve he-goats for a sin-offering: all this was a burned offering to the Lord.
36 They also delivered the king's orders to the king's viceroys and governors beyond the [Euphrates] River; and these gave their support to the people and to the house of God.
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And they gave the king's orders to the king's captains and the rulers across the river, and they gave the people and the house of God the help which was needed.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.