Then the heads of fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, even all whose spirit God had stirred, rose up to go up to build the house of LORD which is in Jerusalem.

Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put in the house of his gods,

Now these are the sons of the province who went up out of the captivity of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away to Babylon, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, every man to

besides their men-servants and their maid-servants, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty-seven. And they had two hundred singing men and singing women.

Also they gave money to the masons, and to the carpenters, and food, and drink, and oil, to those of Sidon, and to those of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus

But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers, the old men who had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice, and many shouted aloud for joy.

But after that our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to wrath. He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house, and carried the people away into Babylon.

Then Tattenai, the governor beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and their companions, because of what Darius the king had sent, did accordingly with all diligence.

For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together, all of them were pure. And they killed the Passover for all the sons of the captivity, and for their brothers the priests, and for themselves.

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,

and kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy. For LORD had made them joyful, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.

this Ezra went up from Babylon. And he was a skilled scribe in the law of Moses, which LORD, the God of Israel, had given. And the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of LORD his God upon him.

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

and of the Nethinim, whom David and the rulers had given for the service of the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinim. All of them were mentioned by name.

For 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 upon all those who seek him, for good, but his power an

and 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 rulers, and all Israel there present, had offered.

shall we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the peoples who do these abominations? Would thou not be angry with us till thou had consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape?

And they made an end with all the men who had married foreign women by the first day of the first month.

And among the sons of the priests there were found who had married foreign women, [namely], of the sons of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and his brothers, Maaseiah, and Eliezer, and Jarib, and Gedaliah.

All these had taken foreign wives, and some of them had wives by whom they had sons.