Day 224 of 365

¹Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,

²the son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub,

³the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth,

⁴the son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki,

⁵the son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest;

⁶this Ezra went up from Babylon: and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given; and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the Lord his God on him.

⁷There went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinim, to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.

⁸He came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.

⁹For on the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon; and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God on him.

¹⁰For Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances.

¹¹Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, even the scribe of the words of the commandments of the Lord, and of his statutes to Israel:

¹²Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, perfect and so forth.

¹³I make a decree, that all those of the people of Israel, and their priests and the Levites, in my realm, who are minded of their own free will to go to Jerusalem, go with you.

¹⁴Because you are sent of the king and his seven counselors, to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of your God which is in your hand,

¹⁵and to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem,

¹⁶and all the silver and gold that you shall find in all the province of Babylon, with the freewill offering of the people, and of the priests, offering willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem;

¹⁷therefore you shall with all diligence buy with this money bulls, rams, lambs, with their meal offerings and their drink offerings, and shall offer them on the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem.

¹⁸Whatever shall seem good to you and to your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, do that after the will of your God.

¹⁹The vessels that are given to you for the service of the house of your God, deliver before the God of Jerusalem.

²⁰Whatever more shall be needful for the house of your God, which you shall have occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king's treasure house.

²¹I, even I Artaxerxes the king, do make a decree to all the treasurers who are beyond the River, that whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, shall require of you, it be done with all diligence,

²²to one hundred talents of silver, and to one hundred measures of wheat, and to one hundred baths of wine, and to one hundred baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much.

²³Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done exactly for the house of the God of heaven; for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?

²⁴Also we inform you, that touching any of the priests and Levites, the singers, porters, Nethinim, or servants of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose tribute, custom, or toll, on them.

²⁵You, Ezra, after the wisdom of your God who is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges, who may judge all the people who are beyond the River, all such as know the laws of your God; and teach him who doesn't know them.

²⁶Whoever will not do the law of your God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed on him with all diligence, whether it be to death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.

²⁷Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem;

²⁸and has extended loving kindness to me before the king, and his counselors, and before all the king's mighty princes. I was strengthened according to the hand of the Lord my God on me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me.

¹Now these are the heads of their fathers' households, and this is the 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 Shecaniah, of the sons of Parosh, Zechariah; and with him were reckoned by genealogy of the males one hundred fifty.

⁴Of the sons of Pahathmoab, Eliehoenai the son of Zerahiah; and with him two hundred males.

⁵Of the sons of Shecaniah, the son of Jahaziel; and with him three hundred males.

⁶Of the sons of Adin, Ebed the son of Jonathan; and with him fifty males.

⁷Of the sons of Elam, Jeshaiah the son of Athaliah; and with him seventy males.

⁸Of the sons of Shephatiah, Zebadiah the son of Michael; and with him eighty males.

⁹Of the sons of Joab, Obadiah the son of Jehiel; and with him two hundred and eighteen males.

¹⁰Of the sons of Shelomith, the son of Josiphiah; and with him one hundred sixty males.

¹¹Of the sons of Bebai, Zechariah the son of Bebai; and with him twenty-eight males.

¹²Of the sons of Azgad, Johanan the son of Hakkatan; and with him one hundred ten males.

¹³Of the sons of Adonikam, who were the last; and these are their names: Eliphelet, Jeuel, and Shemaiah; and with them sixty males.

¹⁴Of the sons of Bigvai, Uthai and Zabbud; and with them seventy males.

¹⁵I gathered them together to the river that runs to Ahava; and there we encamped three days: and I viewed the people, and the priests, and found there none of the sons of Levi.

¹⁶Then sent I for Eliezer, for Ariel, for Shemaiah, and for Elnathan, and for Jarib, and for Elnathan, and for Nathan, and for Zechariah, and for Meshullam, chief men; also for Joiarib, and for Elnathan, who were teachers.

¹⁷I sent them forth to Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia; and I told them what they should tell Iddo, and his brothers the Nethinim, at the place Casiphia, that they should bring to us ministers for the house of our God.

¹⁸According to the good hand of our God on us they brought us a man of discretion, of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel; and Sherebiah, with his sons and his brothers, eighteen;

¹⁹and Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brothers and their sons, twenty;

²⁰and of the Nethinim, whom David and the princes had given for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinim: all of them were mentioned by name.

²¹Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek of him a straight way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.

²²For I was ashamed to ask of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way, because we had spoken to the king, saying, "The hand of our God is on all those who seek him, for good; but his power and his wrath is against all those who forsake him."

²³So we fasted and begged our God for this: and he was entreated of us.

²⁴Then I set apart twelve of the chiefs of the priests, even Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brothers with them,

²⁵and weighed to them the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, even the offering for the house of our God, which the king, and his counselors, and his princes, and all Israel there present, had offered:

²⁶I weighed into their hand six hundred fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels one hundred talents; of gold one hundred talents;

²⁷and twenty bowls of gold, of one thousand darics; and two vessels of fine bright brass, precious as gold.

²⁸I said to them, "You are holy to the Lord, and the vessels are holy; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the Lord, the God of your fathers.

²⁹Watch, and keep them, until you weigh them before the chiefs of the priests and the Levites, and the princes of the fathers' households of Israel, at Jerusalem, in the rooms of the house of the Lord."

³⁰So the priests and the Levites received the weight of the silver and the gold, and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem to the house of our God.

³¹Then we departed 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 bandit by the way.

³²We came to Jerusalem, and stayed there three days.

³³On the fourth day the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed in the house of our God into the hand of Meremoth the son of Uriah the priest; and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas; and with them was Jozabad the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah the son of Binnui, the Levite;

³⁴the whole by number and by weight: and all the weight was written at that time.

³⁵The children of the captivity, who had come out of exile, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel, twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and twelve male goats for a sin offering: all this was a burnt offering to the Lord.

³⁶They delivered the king's commissions to the king's satraps, and to the governors beyond the River: and they furthered the people and God's house.

¹Now when these things were done, the princes drew near to me, saying, "The people of Israel, and the priests and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, following their abominations, even those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.

²For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed have mixed themselves with the peoples of the lands. Yes, the hand of the princes and rulers has been chief in this trespass."

³When I heard this thing, I tore my garment and my robe, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down confounded.

⁴Then were assembled to me everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of their trespass of the captivity; and I sat confounded until the evening offering.

⁵At the evening offering I arose up from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn; and I fell on my knees, and spread out my hands to the Lord my God;

⁶and I said, "My God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God; for our iniquities have increased over our head, and our guiltiness has grown up to the heavens.

⁷Since the days of our fathers we have been exceeding guilty to this day; and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests, have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.

⁸Now for a little moment grace has been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.

⁹For we are bondservants; yet our God has not forsaken us in our bondage, but has extended loving kindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.

¹⁰"Now, our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments,

¹¹which you have commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, 'The land, to which you go to possess it, is an unclean land through the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, through their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their filthiness.

¹²Now therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters to your sons, nor seek their peace or their prosperity forever; that you may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.'

¹³"After all that has come on us for our evil deeds, and for our great guilt, since you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such a remnant,

¹⁴shall we again break your commandments, and join in affinity with the peoples that do these abominations? Wouldn't you be angry with us until you had consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape?

¹⁵The Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous; for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is this day. Behold, we are before you in our guiltiness; for none can stand before you because of this."

¹God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?

²Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance; Mount Zion, in which you have lived.

³Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.

⁴Your adversaries have roared in the midst of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs.

⁵They behaved like men wielding axes, cutting through a thicket of trees.

⁶Now they break all its carved work down with hatchet and hammers.

⁷They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the dwelling place of your Name.

⁸They said in their heart, "We will crush them completely." They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshiped.

⁹We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, neither is there among us anyone who knows how long.

¹⁰How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever?

¹¹Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it out of your pocket and consume them!

¹²Yet God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.

¹³You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.

¹⁴You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and desert creatures.

¹⁵You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.

¹⁶The day is yours, the night is also yours. You have prepared the light and the sun.

¹⁷You have set all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter.

¹⁸Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, Lord. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.

¹⁹Do not deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Do not forget the life of your poor forever.

²⁰Honor your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.

²¹Do not let the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise your name.

²²Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day.

²³Do not forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.

¹My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you.

²Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.

³Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Tell wisdom, "You are my sister." Call understanding your relative,

⁵that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.

⁶For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice.

⁷I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,

⁸passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house,

⁹in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness.

¹⁰Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent.

¹¹She is loud and defiant. Her feet do not stay in her house.

¹²Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner.

¹³So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him:

¹⁴"Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. This day I have paid my vows.

¹⁵Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you.

¹⁶I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let's take our fill of loving until the morning. Let's solace ourselves with loving.

¹⁹For my husband isn't at home. He has gone on a long journey.

²⁰He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon."

²¹With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.

²²He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose.

²³Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn't know that it will cost his life.

²⁴Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Do not let your heart turn to her ways. Do not go astray in her paths,

²⁶for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army.

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.