These were Ehud’s sons, who were the heads of the families living in Geba and who were deported to Manahath:

Jeuz, Sachia, and Mirmah. These were his sons, heads of families.

These were heads of families, chiefs according to their genealogies, and lived in Jerusalem.

and Mikloth who fathered Shimeah. These also lived opposite their relatives in Jerusalem, with their other relatives.

Azel had six sons, and these were their names: Azrikam, Bocheru, Ishmael, Sheariah, Obadiah, and Hanan. All these were Azel’s sons.

Ulam’s sons were warriors and archers. They had many sons and grandsons—150 of them.
All these were among Benjamin’s sons.

These people from the descendants of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh settled in Jerusalem:

and 956 of their relatives according to their genealogical records. All these men were heads of their ancestral houses.

he was previously stationed at the King’s Gate on the east side. These were the gatekeepers from the camp of the Levites.

These were the heads of the Levite families, chiefs according to their genealogies, and lived in Jerusalem.

Mikloth fathered Shimeam. These also lived opposite their relatives in Jerusalem with their other relatives.

Azel had six sons, and these were their names: Azrikam, Bocheru, Ishmael, Sheariah, Obadiah, and Hanan. These were Azel’s sons.

Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through with it, or these uncircumcised men will come and torture me!” But his armor-bearer wouldn’t do it because he was terrified. Then Saul took his sword and fell on it.

David said, “I would never do such a thing in the presence of God! How can I drink the blood of these men who risked their lives?” For they brought it at the risk of their lives. So he would not drink it. Such were the exploits of the three warriors.

These were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who had a reputation among the three warriors.

These Gadites were army commanders; the least of them was a match for a hundred, and the greatest of them for a thousand.

These are the men who crossed the Jordan in the first month when it was overflowing all its banks, and put to flight all those in the valleys to the east and to the west.

All these warriors, lined up in battle formation, came to Hebron fully determined to make David king over all Israel. All the rest of Israel was also of one mind to make David king.

These are the names of the children born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,

Nathan reported all these words and this entire vision to David.

Lord, You have done all this greatness, making known all these great promises because of Your servant and according to Your will.

King David also dedicated these to the Lord, along with the silver and gold he had carried off from all the nations—from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, and the Amalekites.

These were the descendants of the giant in Gath killed by David and his soldiers.

David said to God, “Wasn’t I the one who gave the order to count the people? I am the one who has sinned and acted very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? My Lord God, please let Your hand be against me and against my father’s family, but don’t let the plague be against Your people.”

“Of these,” David said, “24,000 are to be in charge of the work on the Lord’s temple, 6,000 are to be officers and judges,

These were the sons of Levi by their ancestral houses—the heads of families, according to their registration by name in the headcount—20 years old or more, who worked in the service of the Lord’s temple.

These had their assigned duties for service when they entered the Lord’s temple, according to their regulations, which they received from their ancestor Aaron, as the Lord God of Israel had commanded him.

All these sons of Heman, the king’s seer, were given by the promises of God to exalt him, for God had given Heman fourteen sons and three daughters.

All these men were under their own fathers’ authority for the music in the Lord’s temple, with cymbals, harps, and lyres for the service of God’s temple. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under the king’s authority.

All of these were among the sons of Obed-edom with their sons and brothers; they were capable men with strength for the work—62 from Obed-edom.

These divisions of the gatekeepers, under their leading men, had duties for ministering in the Lord’s temple, just as their brothers did.

Jaziz the Hagrite was in charge of the flocks.
All these were officials in charge of King David’s property.

I know, my God, that You test the heart and that You are pleased with what is right. I have willingly given all these things with an upright heart, and now I have seen Your people who are present here giving joyfully and willingly to You.

Now grant me wisdom and knowledge so that I may lead these people, for who can judge this great people of Yours?”

These are Solomon’s foundations for building God’s temple: the length was 90 feet, and the width 30 feet.

The wingspan of these cherubim was 30 feet. They stood on their feet and faced the larger room.

the pots, the shovels, the forks, and all their utensils—Huram-abi made them for King Solomon for the Lord’s temple. All these were made of polished bronze.

Solomon made all these utensils in such great abundance that the weight of the bronze was not determined.

These were King Solomon’s deputies: 250 who ruled over the people.

How happy are your men. How happy are these servants of yours, who always stand in your presence hearing your wisdom.

They replied, “If you will be kind to these people and please them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”

So he said to the people of Judah, “Let’s build these cities and surround them with walls and towers, with doors and bars. The land is still ours because we sought the Lord our God. We sought Him and He gave us rest on every side.” So they built and succeeded.

Asa had an army of 300,000 from Judah bearing large shields and spears, and 280,000 from Benjamin bearing regular shields and drawing the bow. All these were brave warriors.

When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He renovated the altar of the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord’s temple.

The Levites with them were Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tob-adonijah; the priests, Elishama and Jehoram, were with these Levites.

These are their numbers according to their ancestral families. For Judah, the commanders of thousands:

Adnah the commander and 300,000 brave warriors with him;

These were the ones who served the king, besides those he stationed in the fortified cities throughout all Judah.

Then Zedekiah son of Chenaanah made iron horns and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You will gore the Arameans with these until they are finished off.’”

“Now, you see, the Lord has put a lying spirit into the mouth of these prophets of yours, and the Lord has pronounced disaster against you.”

He had brothers, sons of Jehoshaphat: Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariah, Michael, and Shephatiah; all these were the sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.

After all these things, the Lord afflicted him in his intestines with an incurable disease.

The number of burnt offerings the congregation brought was 70 bulls, 100 rams, and 200 lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to the Lord.

After these faithful deeds, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and entered Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities and intended to break into them.

Who among all the gods of these nations that my predecessors completely destroyed was able to deliver his people from my power, that your God should be able to do the same for you?

These now are the people of the province who came from those captive exiles King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had deported to Babylon. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town.

These searched for their entries in the genealogical records, but they could not be found, so they were disqualified from the priesthood.

that a search should be made in your fathers’ record books. In these record books you will discover and verify that the city is a rebellious city, harmful to kings and provinces. There have been revolts in it since ancient times. That is why this city was destroyed.

Therefore, issue an order for these men to stop, so that this city will not be rebuilt until a further decree has been pronounced by me.

But God was watching over the Jewish elders. These men wouldn’t stop them until a report was sent to Darius, so that they could receive written instructions about this matter.

Cyrus told him, “Take these articles, put them in the temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt on its original site.”

I hereby issue a decree concerning what you must do, so that the elders of the Jews can rebuild the house of God:

The cost is to be paid in full to these men out of the royal revenues from the taxes of the region west of the Euphrates River, so that the work will not stop.

After these events, during the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia, Ezra—

Seraiah’s son, Azariah’s son,
Hilkiah’s son,

These are the family leaders and the genealogical records of those who returned with me from Babylon during the reign of King Artaxerxes:

these are the last ones, from Adonikam’s descendants,
and their names are:
Eliphelet, Jeuel, and Shemaiah,
and 60 men with them;

After these things had been done, the leaders approached me and said: “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the surrounding peoples whose detestable practices are like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites.

should we break Your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit these detestable practices? Wouldn’t You become so angry with us that You would destroy us, leaving no survivors?

All of these had married foreign women, and some of the wives had given birth to children.

When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

before his colleagues and the powerful men of Samaria, and said, “What are these pathetic Jews doing? Can they restore it by themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they ever finish it? Can they bring these burnt stones back to life from the mounds of rubble?”

I became extremely angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints.

They responded: “We will return these things and require nothing more from them. We will do as you say.”

So I summoned the priests and made everyone take an oath to do this.

In it was written:

It is reported among the nations—and Geshem agrees—that you and the Jews plan to rebel. This is the reason you are building the wall. According to these reports, you are to become their king

and have even set up the prophets in Jerusalem to proclaim on your behalf: “There is a king in Judah.” These rumors will be heard by the king. So come, let’s confer together.

Then I replied to him, “There is nothing to these rumors you are spreading; you are inventing them in your own mind.”

These nobles kept mentioning Tobiah’s good deeds to me, and they reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.

These are the people of the province who went up among the captive exiles deported by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Each of them returned to Jerusalem and Judah, to his own town.

These searched for their entries in the genealogical records, but they could not be found, so they were disqualified from the priesthood.

Maaziah, Bilgai, and Shemaiah.
These were the priests.

These are the heads of the province who stayed in Jerusalem (but in the villages of Judah each lived on his own property in their towns—the Israelites, priests, Levites, temple servants, and descendants of Solomon’s servants—

These were Benjamin’s descendants:

Sallu son of Meshullam, son of Joed, son of Pedaiah, son of Kolaiah, son of Maaseiah, son of Ithiel, son of Jeshaiah,

These are the priests and Levites who went up with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and with Jeshua:

Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,

Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah.

These were the leaders of the priests and their relatives in the days of Jeshua.

These served in the days of Joiakim son of Jeshua, son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor and Ezra the priest and scribe.

These events took place during the days of Ahasuerus, who ruled 127 provinces from India to Cush.

They killed these 10 sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. However, they did not seize any plunder.

Mordecai recorded these events and sent letters to all the Jews in all of King Ahasuerus’s provinces, both near and far.

For this reason these days are called Purim, from the word Pur.

Because of all the instructions in this letter as well as what they had witnessed and what had happened to them,

the Jews bound themselves, their descendants, and all who joined with them to a commitment that they would not fail to celebrate these two days each and every year according to the written instructions and according to the time appointed.

These days are remembered and celebrated by every generation, family, province, and city, so that these days of Purim will not lose their significance in Jewish life and their memory will not fade from their descendants.

in order to confirm these days of Purim at their proper time just as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had established them and just as they had committed themselves and their descendants to the practices of fasting and lamentation.

So Esther’s command confirmed these customs of Purim, which were then written into the record.

The caravans of Tema look for these streams.
The traveling merchants of Sheba hope for them.

How long will you go on saying these things?
Your words are a blast of wind.

“Yet You concealed these thoughts in Your heart;
I know that this was Your hidden plan:

Which of all these does not know
that the hand of the Lord has done this?

Only grant these two things to me, God,
so that I will not have to hide from Your presence:

I have heard many things like these.
You are all miserable comforters.

He will certainly accomplish what He has decreed for me,
and He has many more things like these in mind.

Who did you speak these words to?
Whose breath came out of your mouth?

These are but the fringes of His ways;
how faint is the word we hear of Him!
Who can understand His mighty thunder?