After him their relatives worked – Binnui son of Henadad, head of a half-district of Keilah.

There were those who said, “With our sons and daughters, we are many. We must obtain grain in order to eat and stay alive.”

The priests: the descendants of Jedaiah (through the family of Jeshua), 973;

All the temple servants and the descendants of the servants of Solomon, 392.

On the twenty-fourth day of this same month the Israelites assembled; they were fasting and wearing sackcloth, their heads covered with dust.

Those truly of Israelite descent separated from all the foreigners, standing and confessing their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors.

You multiplied their descendants like the stars of the sky. You brought them to the land you had told their ancestors to enter in order to possess.

“We will not give our daughters in marriage to the neighboring peoples, and we will not take their daughters in marriage for our sons.

The sum total of the descendants of Perez who were settling in Jerusalem was 468 exceptional men.

and his colleagues who were exceptional men – 128. The officer over them was Zabdiel the son of Haggedolim.

The singers were also assembled from the district around Jerusalem and from the settlements of the Netophathites

They performed the service of their God and the service of purification, along with the singers and gatekeepers, according to the commandment of David and his son Solomon.

The people from Tyre who lived there were bringing fish and all kinds of merchandise and were selling it on the Sabbath to the people of Judah – and in Jerusalem, of all places!

Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod (or the language of one of the other peoples mentioned) and were unable to speak the language of Judah.

Uzziel son of Harhaiah, a member of the goldsmiths’ guild, worked on the section adjacent to him. Hananiah, a member of the perfumers’ guild, worked on the section adjacent to him. They plastered the city wall of Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall.

Then I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel. He was confined to his home. He said, “Let’s set up a time to meet in the house of God, within the temple. Let’s close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. It will surely be at night that they will come to kill you.”

So all the assembly which had returned from the exile constructed temporary shelters and lived in them. The Israelites had not done so from the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day. Everyone experienced very great joy.

The Israelites and the Levites will bring the contribution of the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil to the storerooms where the utensils of the sanctuary are kept, and where the priests who minister stay, along with the gatekeepers and the singers. We will not neglect the temple of our God.”

I gave instructions that Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and a certain Levite named Pedaiah be put in charge of the storerooms, and that Hanan son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah, be their assistant, for they were regarded as trustworthy. It was then their responsibility to oversee the distribution to their colleagues.

These are the words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: It so happened that in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year, I was in Susa the citadel.