Thematic Bible




Thematic Bible






And some of the heads of families gave money for the work. The Tirshatha gave into the store a thousand darics of gold, fifty basins, five hundred and thirty priests' robes. And some of the heads of families gave into the store for the work twenty thousand darics of gold, and two thousand, two hundred pounds of silver. And that which the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand darics of gold, and two thousand pounds of silver, and sixty-seven priests' robes.

And for the wood offering, at fixed times, and for the first fruits. Keep me in mind, O my God, for good.

Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all the rest of the people, gave ear to the voice of the Lord their God and to the words of Haggai the prophet, because the Lord their God had sent him, and the people were in fear before the Lord. Then Haggai, whom the Lord had sent to give his words to the people, said, I am with you, says the Lord. And the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, ruler of Judah, was moved by the Lord, as was the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the rest of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of armies, their God.

Then the heads of families of Judah and Benjamin, with the priests and the Levites, got ready, even all those whose spirits were moved by God to go up and take in hand the building of the Lord's house in Jerusalem. And all their neighbours gave them help with offerings of vessels of silver and gold and goods and beasts and things of great value, in addition to what was freely offered.

And some of the heads of families, when they came to the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem, gave freely of their wealth for the building up of the house of God in its place: Every one, as he was able, gave for the work sixty-one thousand darics of gold, five thousand pounds of silver and a hundred priests' robes.

Then Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, with his brothers, got up and made the altar of the God of Israel for burned offerings as is recorded in the law of Moses, the man of God. They put the altar on its base; for fear was on them because of the people of the countries: and they made burned offerings on it to the Lord, even burned offerings morning and evening. And they kept the feast of tents, as it is recorded, making the regular burned offerings every day by number, as it is ordered; for every day what was needed. read more.
And after that, the regular burned offering and the offerings for the new moons and all the fixed feasts of the Lord which had been made holy, and the offering of everyone who freely gave his offering to the Lord. From the first day of the seventh month they made a start with the burned offerings, but the base of the Temple of the Lord had still not been put in its place. And they gave money to the stoneworkers and woodworkers; and meat and drink and oil to the people of Zidon and of Tyre, for the transport of cedar-trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, as Cyrus, king of Persia, had given them authority to do. Now in the second year of their coming into the house of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, the work was taken in hand by Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all those who had come from the land where they were prisoners to Jerusalem: and they made the Levites, of twenty years old and over, responsible for overseeing the work of the house of the Lord. Then Jeshua with his sons and his brothers, Kadmiel with his sons, the sons of Hodaviah, together took up the work of overseeing the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad with their sons and their brothers, the Levites.

Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, got up and made a start at building the house of God at Jerusalem: and the prophets of God were with them, helping them. At the same time, Tattenai, ruler of the land across the river, and Shethar-bozenai, and their men, came to them and said, Who gave you orders to go on building this house and this wall? Then they said these words to them: What are the names of the men who are at work on this building? read more.
But the eye of their God was on the chiefs of the Jews, and they did not make them give up working till the question had been put before Darius and an answer had come by letter about it. This is a copy of the letter which Tattenai, the ruler of the land across the river, and Shethar-bozenai and his friends the Apharsachites, living across the river, sent to Darius the king:

And the responsible men of the Jews went on with their building, and did well, helped by the teaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, the son of Iddo. They went on building till it was complete, in keeping with the word of the God of Israel, and the orders given by Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes, king of Persia. And the building of this house was complete on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the rule of Darius the king. And the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of those who had come back, kept the feast of the opening of this house of God with joy. read more.
And they gave as offerings at the opening of this house of God a hundred oxen, two hundred sheep, four hundred lambs; and for a sin-offering for all Israel, twelve he-goats, being the number of the tribes of Israel. And they put the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their order, for the worship of God at Jerusalem; as it is recorded in the book of Moses. And the children of Israel who had come back kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. For the priests and the Levites had made themselves clean together; they were all clean: and they put the Passover lamb to death for all those who had come back, and for their brothers the priests and for themselves. And the children of Israel, who had come back, and all those who were joined to them, after separating themselves from the evil ways of the people of the land to become the servants of the Lord, the God of Israel, took food together, And kept the feast of unleavened bread for seven days with joy: for the Lord had made them full of joy, by turning the heart of the king of Assyria to them to give them help in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.

And gave to them by weight the silver and the gold and the vessels, all the offering for the house of our God which the king and his wise men and his captains and all Israel there present had given: Measuring into their hands six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels, a hundred talents' weight, and a hundred talents of gold, And twenty gold basins, of a thousand darics, and two vessels of the best bright brass, equal in value to gold. read more.
And I said to them, You are holy to the Lord and the vessels are holy: and the silver and the gold are an offering freely given to the Lord, the God of your fathers. Take care of them and keep them, till you put them on the scales before the chiefs of the priests and the Levites and the chiefs of the families of Israel, in Jerusalem, in the rooms of the house of the Lord. So the priests and the Levites took the weight of silver and gold and the vessels, to take them to Jerusalem into the house of our God. Then we went away from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem; and the hand of our God was on us, and he gave us salvation from our haters and those who were waiting to make an attack on us by the way. And we came to Jerusalem and were there for three days. And on the fourth day, the silver and the gold and the vessels were measured out by weight in the house of our God into the hands of Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the priest; and with him was Eleazar, the son of Phinehas; and with them were Jozabad, the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah, the son of Binnui, the Levites; All was handed over by number and by weight: and the weight was put on record at that time. And those who had been prisoners, who had come back from a strange land, made burned offerings to the God of Israel, twelve oxen for all Israel, ninety-six male sheep, seventy-seven lambs, twelve he-goats for a sin-offering: all this was a burned offering to the Lord.

And I sent men to them saying, I am doing a great work, so that it is not possible for me to come down: is the work to be stopped while I go away from it and come down to you?

And we made rules for ourselves, taxing ourselves a third of a shekel every year for the upkeep of the house of our God; For the holy bread, and for the regular meal offering and the regular burned offering on the Sabbaths and at the new moon and the fixed feasts, and for the sin-offerings to take away the sin of Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God. And we, the priests and the Levites and the people, made selection, by the decision of the Lord, of those who were to take the wood offering into the house of God, by families at the regular times, year by year, to be burned on the altar of the Lord our God, as it is recorded in the law; read more.
And to take the first-fruits of our land, and the first-fruits of every sort of tree, year by year, into the house of the Lord; As well as the first of our sons and of our cattle, as it is recorded in the law, and the first lambs of our herds and of our flocks, which are to be taken to the house of our God, to the priests who are servants in the house of our God: And that we would take the first of our rough meal, and our lifted offerings, and the fruit of every sort of tree, and wine and oil, to the priests, to the rooms of the house of our God; and the tenth of the produce of our land to the Levites; for they, the Levites, take a tenth in all the towns of our ploughed land. And the priest, the son of Aaron, is to be with the Levites, when the Levites take the tenths: and the Levites are to take a tenth of the tenths into the house of our God, to the rooms, into the store-house; For the children of Israel and the children of Levi are to take the lifted offering of the grain and wine and oil into the rooms where the vessels of the holy place are, together with the priests and the door-keepers and the makers of music: and we will not give up caring for the house of our God.

Then all Judah came with the tenth part of the grain and wine and oil and put it into the store-houses.

And now, give thought; looking on from this day, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the time when the base of the Lord's house was put in its place, give thought to it. Is the seed still in the store-house? have the vine and the fig-tree, the pomegranate and the olive-tree, still not given their fruit? from this day I will send my blessing on you.


Now, Sanballat, hearing that we were building the wall, was very angry, and in his wrath made sport of the Jews. And in the hearing of his countrymen and the army of Samaria he said, What are these feeble Jews doing? will they make themselves strong? will they make offerings? will they get the work done in a day? will they make the stones which have been burned come again out of the dust? Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Such is their building that if a fox goes up it, their stone wall will be broken down. read more.
Give ear, O our God, for we are looked down on: let their words of shame be turned back on themselves, and let them be given up to wasting in a land where they are prisoners: Let not their wrongdoing be covered or their sin washed away from before you: for they have made you angry before the builders. So we went on building the wall; and all the wall was joined together half-way up: for the people were working hard. But when it came to the ears of Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites, that the building of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and the broken places were being made good, they were full of wrath; And they made designs, all of them together, to come and make an attack on Jerusalem, causing trouble there. But we made our prayer to God, and had men on watch against them day and night because of them. And Judah said, The strength of the workmen is giving way, and there is much waste material; it is impossible for us to put up the wall. And those who were against us said, Without their knowledge and without their seeing us, we will come among them and put them to death, causing the work to come to a stop. And it came about that when the Jews who were living near them came, they said to us ten times, From all directions they are coming against us. So in the lowest part of the space at the back of the walls, in the open places, I put the people by families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. And after looking, I got up and said to the great ones and to the chiefs and to the rest of the people, Have no fear of them: keep in mind the Lord who is great and greatly to be feared, and take up arms for your brothers, your sons, and your daughters, your wives and your houses. And when it came to the ears of those who were against us, that we had knowledge of their designs and that God had made their purpose come to nothing, we all went back to the wall, everyone to his work And from that time, half of my servants were doing their part of the work, and half kept the spears and body-covers and the bows and the metal war-dresses; and the chiefs were at the back of the men of Judah. Those who were building the wall and those who were moving material did their part, everyone working with one hand, with his spear in the other; Every builder was working with his sword at his side. And by my side was a man for sounding the horn.