Study Desk

"And whoever does not comply with the Law of your God and the law of the king, judgment is to be executed upon him strictly, whether for death or for banishment, or for confiscation of property or for imprisonment."

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

and has extended favor to me before the king and his counselors and before all the king's mighty officials. So I was strengthened according to the hand of the LORD my God that was upon me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.

And I sent them to Iddo the leading man at the place called Casiphia; and I told them what to say to Iddo and his brothers, the temple servants at the place Casiphia, that is, to bring ministers to us for the house of our God.

And as the good hand of our God was upon us, they brought us a man of insight from the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel, namely Sherebiah, and his sons and brothers, eighteen men;

Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, to humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him a safe journey for us, our little ones, and all our possessions.

For I was ashamed to request from the king troops and horsemen to protect us from the enemy on the way, because we had said to the king, "The hand of our God is favorably disposed to all who seek Him, but His power and His anger are against all those who abandon Him."

So we fasted and sought our God concerning this matter, and He listened to our pleading.

and I weighed out to them the silver, the gold, and the utensils, the offering for the house of our God which the king, his counselors, his officials, and all Israel who were present there had contributed.

Then I said to them, "You are holy to the LORD, and the utensils are holy; and the silver and the gold are a voluntary offering to the LORD God of your fathers.

So the priests and the Levites accepted the weight of silver and gold and the utensils, to bring them to Jerusalem to the house of our God.

Then we journeyed from the river Ahava on the twelfth of the first month to go to Jerusalem; and the hand of our God was upon us, and He rescued us from the hand of the enemy and the ambushes by the road.

And on the fourth day the silver, the gold, and the utensils were weighed out 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 were the Levites, Jozabad the son of Jeshua and Noadiah the son of Binnui.

The exiles who had come from the captivity offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel: twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, twelve male goats for a sin offering, all as a burnt offering to the LORD.

Then they delivered the king's edicts to the king's satraps and the governors in the provinces beyond the Euphrates River, and they supported the people and the house of God.

Then everyone who was frightened by the words of the God of Israel on account of the unfaithfulness of the exiles gathered to me, and I sat appalled until the evening offering.

But at the evening offering I stood up from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I bowed down on my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God;

and I said, "My God, I am ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God, for our wrongful deeds have risen above our heads, and our guilt has grown even to the heavens.

"But now for a brief moment grace has been shown from the LORD our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place, so that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage.

"For we are slaves; yet in our bondage our God has not abandoned us, but has extended favor to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us reviving to erect the house of our God, to restore its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.