The singers: the descendants of Asaph: 128.

from the descendants of Bigvai, Uthai, and Zaccur, and with them 70 men.

Everything was verified by number and by weight, and the total weight was written down at that time.

Get up, for this matter concerns you. We are with you, so be strong and act decisively!”

435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys.

A scroll was found in the citadel of Ecbatana which is in the province of Media, and it was inscribed as follows: “Memorandum:

Then the priests and the Levites took charge of the silver, the gold, and the vessels that had been weighed out, to transport them to Jerusalem to the temple of our God.

and on the first day of the first month they finished considering all the men who had married foreign wives.

All these had taken foreign wives, and some of them also had children by these women.

All these gold and silver vessels totaled 5,400. Sheshbazzar brought them all along when the captives were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

The gatekeepers: the descendants of Shallum, the descendants of Ater, the descendants of Talmon, the descendants of Akkub, the descendants of Hatita, and the descendants of Shobai: 139.

People were unable to tell the difference between the sound of joyous shouting and the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people were shouting so loudly that the sound was heard a long way off.

(This is a copy of the letter they sent to him:) “To King Artaxerxes, from your servants in Trans-Euphrates:

We therefore are informing the king that if this city is rebuilt and its walls are completed, you will not retain control of this portion of Trans-Euphrates.”

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.

But God was watching over the elders of Judah, and they were not stopped until a report could be dispatched to Darius and a letter could be sent back concerning this.

They finished this temple on the third day of the month Adar, which is the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.

They appointed the priests by their divisions and the Levites by their divisions over the worship of God at Jerusalem, in accord with the book of Moses.

What follows is a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priestly scribe. Ezra was a scribe in matters pertaining to the commandments of the Lord and his statutes over Israel:

Shall we once again break your commandments and intermarry with these abominable peoples? Would you not be so angered by us that you would wipe us out, with no survivor or remnant?