The companions of Esdras. The fast which he appointed. They bring the holy vessels into the temple.

¹ And so these are the leaders of the families, with their genealogy, of those who ascended with me from Babylon, during the reign of king Artaxerxes.

² From the sons of Phinehas, Gershom. From the sons of Ithamar, Daniel. From the sons of David, Hattush.

³ From the sons of Shecaniah, the son of Parosh, Zechariah, and one hundred fifty men were numbered with him.

⁴ From the sons of Pahath-moab, Eliehoenai, the son of Zerahiah, and two hundred men were with him.

⁵ From the sons of Shecaniah, the son of Jahaziel, and three hundred men were with him.

⁶ From the sons of Adin, Ebed, the son of Jonathan, and fifty men were with him.

⁷ From the sons of Elam, Jeshaiah, the son of Athaliah, and seventy men were with him.

⁸ From the sons of Shephatiah, Zebadiah, the son of Michael, and eighty men were with him.

⁹ From the sons of Joab, Obadiah, the son of Jehiel, and two hundred eighteen men were with him.

¹⁰ From the sons of Shelomith, the son of Josiphiah, and one hundred sixty men were with him.

¹¹ From the sons of Bebai, Zechariah, the son of Bebai, and twenty-eight men were with him.

¹² From the sons of Azgad, Johanan, the son of Hakkatan, and one hundred and ten men were with him.

¹³ From the sons of Adonikam, who were the last, and these were their names: Eliphelet, and Jeuel, and Shemaiah, and sixty men were with them.

¹⁴ From the sons of Bigvai, Uthai and Zaccur, and seventy men were with them.

¹⁵ Now I gathered them together at the river that runs down to Ahava, and we stayed there for three days. And I sought among the people and among the priests for the sons of Levi, and I found none there.

¹⁶ And so I sent Eliezer, and Ariel, and Shemaiah, and Elnathan, and Jarib, and another Elnathan, and Nathan, and Zechariah, and Meshullam, who were leaders, and Joiarib and Elnathan, who were wise.

¹⁷ And I sent them to Iddo, who is first within the place of Casiphia. And I placed in their mouth the words that they should speak to Iddo and his brothers, the temple servants, in the place of Casiphia, so that they would lead to us ministers for the house of our God.

¹⁸ And because the good hand of our God was over us, they led to us a very learned man from the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel, with Sherebiah, and his sons, and his eighteen brothers,

¹⁹ and Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah, of the sons of Merari, and his brothers, and his sons, numbering twenty.

²⁰ And from the temple servants, whom David, and the leaders had provided for the ministry of the Levites, there were two hundred twenty temple servants. All these were called by their names.

²¹ And I proclaimed a fast in that place, beside the river Ahava, so that we might afflict ourselves in the sight of the Lord our God, and so that we might request of him the right way for us, and for our sons, and for all our substance.¹

1. 8:21And I proclaimed a fast: It is not enough to part from Babylon, that is, figuratively from sin, but we must also do works of penance; and therefore Esdras here proclaimed an extraordinary fast to those that were come from captivity. This shows that fasting was commanded and practised from the earliest times.(Challoner)

²² For I was ashamed to petition the king for assistance and for horsemen, who would defend us from the enemy along the way. For we had said to the king: “The hand of our God is over all those who seek him in goodness. And his authority, and his strength and fury, is over all those who forsake him.”

²³ And so we fasted and begged our God for this; and as a result, we prospered.

²⁴ And I separated twelve from among the leaders of the priests: Sherebiah, and Hashabiah, and with them ten of their brothers.

²⁵ And I weighed out to them the silver and the gold, and the vessels consecrated to the house of our God, which had been offered by the king, and by his counselors and his leaders, and by all those of Israel who had been found.

²⁶ And I weighed out to their hands six hundred fifty talents of silver, and one hundred vessels of silver, and one hundred talents of gold,

²⁷ and twenty gold bowls which had the weight of one thousand coins, and two vessels of the finest shining brass, as beautiful as gold.

²⁸ And I said to them: “You are the holy ones of the Lord, and the vessels are holy, with the silver and the gold, which has been offered freely to the Lord, the God of our fathers.

²⁹ Watch and guard them, until you weigh them out before the leaders of the priests and the Levites, and the rulers of the families of Israel in Jerusalem, into the treasury of the house of the Lord.”

³⁰ Then the priests and the Levites received the weight of the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, so that they might carry these to Jerusalem, into the house of our God.

³¹ Therefore, we set out from the river Ahava, on the twelfth day of the first month, so that we might travel to Jerusalem. And the hand of our God was over us, and he freed us from the hand of the enemy and of those who lay in ambush along the way.

³² And we arrived at Jerusalem, and we stayed there for three days.

³³ Then, on the fourth day, the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed out in the house of our God, by the hand of Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the priest; and with him was Eleazar, the son of Phinehas, and with them were the Levites, Jozabad, the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah, the son of Binnui.

³⁴ This was done according to the number and weight of everything; and every weight was written down at that time.

³⁵ Moreover, those who came from the captivity, the sons of the transmigration, offered holocausts to the God of Israel: twelve calves on behalf of all the people of Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and twelve he-goats for sin. All these were a holocaust to the Lord.

³⁶ Then they gave the edicts of the king to the rulers who served in the sight of the king, and to the governors beyond the river, and they exalted the people and the house of God.