20
also of the Nethinims, whom David and the princes had appointed for the ministry of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinims: all of them were expressed by name.
21
Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance.
22
For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to defend us against the enemy in the way because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God
is upon all those that seek him for good; but his power and his wrath
is against all those that forsake him.
23
So we fasted and besought our God for this, and he was intreated of us.
24
Then I separated twelve of the principals of the priests, Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them,
25
and weighed unto them the silver and the gold and the vessels, the offering for the house of our God, which the king and his counsellors and his princes and all those that were of Israel had offered.
26
I weighed, therefore, unto their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver and silver vessels of one hundred talents
and of gold one hundred talents;
27
also twenty basins of gold, of a thousand drams, and two vessels of clean brass, precious as gold.
28
And I said unto them, Ye
are holiness unto the LORD; the vessels
are holiness also; and the silver and the gold
are a freewill offering unto the LORD God of your fathers.
29
Watch and keep
them until you weigh
them before the princes of the priests and the Levites and of the princes of the fathers of Israel in Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the LORD.
30
The priests and the Levites received the weight of the silver and of the gold and of the vessels, to bring
them to Jerusalem unto the house of our God.