Ezra 8:24-36

English Standard Version

Priests to Guard Offerings

²⁴ Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests: ^(A)Sherebiah, ^(B)Hashabiah, and ten of their kinsmen with them. ²⁵ And I weighed out to them the ^(C)silver and the gold and the vessels, the offering for the house of our God that the king and his ^(D)counselors and his lords and all Israel there present had offered. ^26 (E)I weighed out into their hand 650 talents^[a] of silver, and silver vessels worth 200 talents,^[b] and 100 talents of gold, ²⁷ 20 bowls of gold worth 1,000 darics,^[c] and two vessels of fine bright bronze as precious as gold. ²⁸ And I said to them, ^(F)“You are holy to the Lord, and ^(G)the vessels are holy, and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the Lord, the God of your fathers. ²⁹ Guard them and keep them until you weigh them before the chief priests and the Levites and the heads of fathers' houses in Israel at Jerusalem, ^(H)within the chambers of the house of the Lord.” ³⁰ So the priests and the Levites ^(I)took over the weight of the silver and the gold and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem, to the house of our God.

³¹ Then we departed from the river Ahava ^(J)on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem. ^(K)The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes by the way. ^32 (L)We came to Jerusalem, and there we remained three days. ³³ On the fourth day, within the house of our God, the silver and the gold and the vessels were ^(M)weighed into the hands of ^(N)Meremoth the priest, son of Uriah, and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas, and with them were the Levites, ^(O)Jozabad the son of Jeshua and Noadiah the son of ^(P)Binnui. ³⁴ The whole was counted and weighed, and the weight of everything was recorded.

³⁵ At that time ^(Q)those who had come from captivity, the returned exiles, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel, ^(R)twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and as a sin offering twelve male goats. All this was a burnt offering to the Lord. ^36 (S)They also delivered the king's commissions to the king's ^(T)satraps^[d] and to the governors of the province Beyond the River, and they aided the people and the house of God.