So that all the vessels both of gold and silver, were five thousand and four hundred. Sheshbazzar brought them all up, with them that came up out of the captivity of Babylon unto Jerusalem.

Now these are the children of the province that went up out of the captivity, of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away unto Babylon, and came again unto Jerusalem and Judah, every one unto his city;

Who came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mizpar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:

The following are those who came from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer but were unable to prove that their families and ancestry were Israelite:

And the Tirshatha said that they were not to have the most holy things for their food, till a priest came to give decision by Urim and Thummim.

And some of the heads of the fathers' houses, when they came to the house of the LORD which is at Jerusalem, offered freely for the house of God to set it up in its place:

And when the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem.

In the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jehozadak began [their work], and the remainder of their brothers the priests and the Levites and all who came from the captivity to Jerusalem. They appointed the Levites {from twenty years and older} to direct the work of the house of Yahweh.

So that in the ears of the people the cry of joy was mixed with the sound of weeping; for the cries of the people were loud and came to the ears of those who were a long way off.

Now news came to the haters of Judah and Benjamin that the people who had come back were building a Temple to the Lord, the God of Israel;

Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the heads of the fathers' houses, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as you do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.

Then came it to pass, that, the people of the land, were weakening the hands of the people of Judah, - and troubling them in building;

Be it known unto the king, that the Jews who came up from you to us have come unto Jerusalem, building the rebellious and wicked city, and are finishing its walls, and repairing the foundations.

So the work on the temple of God in Jerusalem came to a halt. It remained halted until the second year of the reign of King Darius of Persia.

At the same time came to them Tattenai, governor on this side of the river, and Shethar-bozenai, and their companions, and said thus unto them, Who has commanded you to build this house, and to restore this wall?

But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, that they could not cause them to cease, till the matter came to Darius: and then they returned an answer by letter concerning this matter.

Be it known unto the king, that we came into Jewry to the house of the great God, which is builded with all manner of stone, and beams are laid in the walls, and the work goeth fast forth, and prospereth in their hands?

Then came the same Sheshbazzar, and laid the foundation of the house of God which is in Jerusalem: and since that time even until now has it been in building, and yet it is not finished.

And at Achmetha, in the great house of the king in the land of Media, they came across a roll, in which this statement was put on record:

And the sons of Israel who came again out of the captivity, and all such as had separated themselves to them from the filthiness of the nations of the land, to seek LORD, the God of Israel, ate,

Now after these things had happened, during the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia, Ezra came up from Babylon. Ezra was the son of Seraiah, who was the son of Azariah, who was the son of Hilkiah,

—came up from Babylon. He was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses, which Yahweh, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted him everything he requested because the hand of Yahweh his God was on him.

So then there came up some of the sons of Israel, and some of the priests and the Levites and the singers and the doorkeepers and the Nethinim, unto Jerusalem, - in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.

And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.

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

These were the heads of their {families} and the register of those returnees from Babylonia who [came up] with me in the reign of King Artaxerxes:

From the descendants of Adonikam, those who came last, these were their names: Eliphelet, Jeiel, Shemaiah, and with them sixty males.

And we came to Jerusalem, and abode there three days.

They who came in out of the captivity, Sons of the Exile, offered as ascending-sacrifices unto the God of Israel - bullocks twelve for all Israel, rams ninety-six, young sheep seventy-seven, he-goats for bearing sin, twelve, - the whole, as an ascending-sacrifice unto Yahweh.

Now when these things were done, the leaders came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, in regard to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.

Then everyone who went in fear of the words of the God of Israel, because of the sin of those who had come back, came together to me; and I kept where I was, overcome with grief, till the evening offering.

Now while Ezra was making his prayer and his statement of wrongdoing, weeping and falling down before the house of God, a very great number of men and women and children out of Israel came together round him: for the people were weeping bitterly.

Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib: and when he came there, he did eat no bread, nor drink water: for he mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carried away.

and that whosoever came not within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his substance should be forfeited, and himself separated from the assembly of the captivity.

Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin came together to Jerusalem before three days were past; it was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people were seated in the wide square in front of the house of God, shaking with fear because of this business and because of the great rain.