Ezra 7-10

New Catholic Bible

The Deeds of Ezra^[a]

Chapter 7

Ezra the Scribe. ¹ After these occurrences, during the reign of Artaxerxes,^[b] king of Persia, Ezra, the son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, ² son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, ³ son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth, ⁴ son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki, ⁵ son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of the high priest Aaron— ⁶ this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a scribe who was skilled in the law of Moses which was given by the Lord, the God of Israel, and the king granted him everything that he requested, since the hand of the Lord God was upon him.

⁷ Ezra was accompanied to Jerusalem by a number of Israelites, priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, and temple slaves in the seventh year of the reign of King Artaxerxes. ⁸ Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king’s reign.

⁹ On the first day of the first month, Ezra had ordered the departure from Babylon, and he arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month, since the gracious hand of his God was upon him. ¹⁰ For he had devoted himself to the study and observance of the law of the Lord so as to put that law into practice and to teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.

¹¹ The Decree of Artaxerxes. This is a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest-scribe, a scholar in matters pertaining to the commandments and statutes of the Lord for Israel:^[c]

¹² “Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest-scribe, a scholar versed in the commandments and statutes of the Lord for Israel. ¹³ I have issued a decree stating that any of the people of Israel in my kingdom, including their priests and Levites, who freely choose to go up to Jerusalem with you are free to do so. ¹⁴ For you are being sent by the king and his seven counselors to make inquiries as to how the law of your God in which you are extremely knowledgeable is being followed in Judah and Jerusalem.

¹⁵ “You are also to convey the silver and gold which the king and his counselors have voluntarily offered to the God of Israel whose dwelling is in Jerusalem, ¹⁶ as well as all the silver and gold which you may receive throughout the province of Babylon and the voluntary offerings that have been freely contributed by the people and the priests for the house of their God in Jerusalem.

¹⁷ “You must spend this money with extreme care to purchase bulls, rams, and lambs, as well as the cereal offerings and libations, and sacrifice them on the altar of the house of your God in Jerusalem. ¹⁸ As for the remainder of the silver and gold, you and your brothers may do whatever seems best to you. ¹⁹ In the presence of the God of Israel you are to deliver those vessels that have been given to you for the service of the house of your God. ²⁰ As for whatever else is required and you are obliged to supply for the needs of the house of your God, you may supply from the royal treasury.

²¹ “I, King Artaxerxes, have issued this decree to all the treasurers of West-of-Euphrates: Whatever the priest Ezra, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, may request of you is to be provided to him exactly, ²² up to one hundred talents of silver, one hundred kors of wheat, one hundred baths of oil, and unlimited amounts of salt. ²³ Let everything that the God of heaven commands be carried out exactly for the house of the God of heaven so that wrath may not be inflicted upon the realm of the king and his sons. ²⁴ We also wish to make clear to you that it is against the law to impose a tribute, tax, or toll on any priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, temple slaves, or other servants of this house of God.

²⁵ “As for you, Ezra, in accordance with the wisdom of your God which you possess, you are to appoint magistrates and judges^[d] to administer justice to all the people in West-of-Euphrates—to all, that is, who know the laws of your God. Furthermore, you are to instruct all those who do not know these laws. ²⁶ Whoever refuses to obey the law of your God and the law of the king is to have judgment be strictly executed, whether the penalty be death, banishment, confiscation of property, or imprisonment.”

²⁷ Ezra and His Companions. Then Ezra said: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of our ancestors, who has influenced the heart of the king in this way to glorify the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, ²⁸ and who permitted me to be granted the faithful love of the king and his counselors and all the most powerful of the king’s officials. Because the hand of the Lord, my God was upon me, I assembled those Israelite leaders to accompany me.”^[e]

Chapter 8

¹ These are the family heads and those registered with them who set forth from Babylon with me in the reign of King Artaxerxes:

² Of the sons of Phinehas: Gershom; of the sons of Ithamar: Daniel; of the sons of David: Hattush, ³ son of Shecaniah; of the sons of Parosh: Zechariah, and with him one hundred and fifty males were enrolled; ⁴ of the sons of Pahath-moab: Eliehoenai, son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males; ⁵ of the sons of Zattu: Shecaniah, son of Jahaziel, and with him three hundred males; ⁶ of the sons of Adin: Ebed, son of Jonathan, and with him fifty males; ⁷ of the sons of Elam: Jeshaiah, son of Athaliah, and with him seventy males; ⁸ of the sons of Shephatiah: Zebadiah, son of Michael, and with him eighty males; ⁹ of the sons of Joab: Obadiah, son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males; ¹⁰ of the sons of Bani: Shelomith, son of Josiphiah, and with him one hundred and sixty males; ¹¹ of the sons of Bebai: Zechariah, son of Bebai, and with him twenty-eight males; ¹² of the sons of Azgad: Johanan, son of Hakkatan, and with him one hundred and ten males; ¹³ of the sons of Adonikam: the younger sons, whose names were Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them sixty males; ¹⁴ of the sons of Bigvai: Uthai and Zaccur, and with them seventy males.

¹⁵ The Journey to Jerusalem. I assembled them by the river that flows to Ahava, and we camped there for three days. During that time I noticed the people and the priests, but I was unable to discern any Levites.^{[f] 16} Therefore, I summoned Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, who were judicious men, ¹⁷ and sent them to Iddo the leader at a place called Casiphia, in order to procure for us ministers to serve in the house of our God.

¹⁸ By the gracious providence of God they sent to us Sherebiah, a wise man, one of the sons of Mahli, son of Levi, son of Israel, with his sons and kinsmen, eighteen men. ¹⁹ They also sent us Hashabiah, and with him his brother Jeshaiah of the descendants of Merari with his kinsmen and their sons, twenty men, ²⁰ and two hundred and twenty temple slaves whom David and the princes had assigned to serve the Levites, all of them enrolled by name.

²¹ Then I proclaimed a fast there by the River Ahava, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and pray that he would grant a successful journey for ourselves, our children, and all our possessions. ²² For I was ashamed to ask the king for foot soldiers and cavalry to protect us from enemies along the way, inasmuch as we had said to the king: “The hand of our God is upon all who seek his protection, but his fierce wrath is against all who forsake him.” ²³ Therefore, we fasted and prayed to God to grant us a safe journey, and he answered our prayer.

²⁴ Then I selected twelve of the leading priests, together with Sherebiah and Hashabiah and ten of their kinsmen. ²⁵ I weighed out in their presence the silver, the gold, and the utensils, the contributions which the king, his advisors, his officials, and all the Israelites present there had offered for the house of our God.

²⁶ I weighed out and handed over to them six hundred and fifty talents^[g] of silver, one hundred silver vessels weighing two talents, one hundred talents of gold, ²⁷ twenty gold bowls worth one thousand darics, and two superb vessels of polished bronze, as precious as gold.

²⁸ Then I said to them: “You are consecrated to the Lord, as are the utensils. The silver and the gold are a free-will offering to the Lord, the God of your fathers. ²⁹ Guard them carefully until you weigh them out to the leading priests, the Levites, and the heads of the families of Israel in Jerusalem within the chambers of the house of the Lord.” ³⁰ The priests and the Levites then took charge of the silver, the gold, and the sacred articles that had been weighed out to be taken to the house of our God in Jerusalem.

³¹ On the twelfth day of the first month we set forth from the Ahava Canal to make our journey to Jerusalem. The hand of God remained to protect us from our enemies and bandits along the way. ³² When we arrived in Jerusalem, we rested for three days.

³³ On the fourth day, the silver, the gold, and the vessels were weighed in the house of God and presented to the priest Meremoth, the son of Uriah, who was accompanied by Eleazar, the son of Phinehas and the Levites Jozabad, the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah, the son of Binnui. ³⁴ Everything was counted and weighed, and the total weight was recorded at that time.

³⁵ After that, those who had returned from their captivity presented burnt offerings to the God of Israel: twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-two lambs, and, as a sin offering, twelve male goats. All these were presented as a holocaust to the Lord. ³⁶ They also delivered the king’s instructions to the royal satraps and to the governors in West-of-Euphrates who then pledged their support to the people and the house of God.

Chapter 9

Denunciation of Mixed Marriages. ¹ After these matters had been concluded, the leaders approached me and said: “The people of Israel, including the priests and the Levites, have not kept themselves separated from the neighboring peoples with their abominable practices—the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. ² They have taken women of these nations as wives for themselves and their sons, and as a result, they have contaminated the holy race by such unions. In this regard the leaders and the magistrates have been the major offenders.”

Ezra’s Exhortation. ³ Upon hearing this news, I tore my tunic and cloak, after which I plucked hair from my beard and my head and sat down in a complete stupor until the evening sacrifice. ⁴ Then all those who trembled with fear at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me, while I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice. ^5 [h]However, at the time of the evening sacrifice, I arose from my stupor, with my cloak and my mantle torn, and I fell to my knees while stretching out my hands to the Lord.

⁶ Then I said: “O my God, I am too ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God, because our iniquities have increased until they have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached the heavens. ⁷ From the time of our fathers until now our guilt has been great, and because of our iniquities we and our kings and our priests have been handed over into the power of foreign rulers and subjected to the sword, to captivity, to pillage and disgrace, as is the case today.

⁸ “But now, for a brief moment, the Lord, our God has shown mercy to us by allowing a remnant of us to escape and given us a stable home in his sanctuary, thereby bringing light to our eyes and granting us some relief in our bondage. ⁹ For we are slaves, but God has not forgotten us in our state of slavery. He has extended his faithful love to us and turned the good will of the kings of Persia toward us, while granting us new life to rebuild the house of our God, restore its ruins, and provide us with a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.

¹⁰ “But now, our God, what can we say after all this? For we have abandoned your commandments, ¹¹ which you gave through your servants, the prophets, when you said: ‘The land that you are entering to possess is a land polluted by the abominations of the people of the country and their disgusting practices that have filled it with their filth from one end to the other. ¹² Therefore, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or let their daughters marry your sons. Nor must you seek peace with them or enhance their prosperity. In this way you will grow strong, enjoy the produce of the land, and leave it as an inheritance to your children forever.’

¹³ “After all that has befallen us for our evil deeds and our great guilt, you, O Lord, have punished us less than our sins have deserved and have allowed us to survive. ¹⁴ Shall we once again disobey your commandments and intermarry with people who engage in these loathsome practices? Would you not be enraged with us to the point that you would destroy us, leaving us with neither remnant nor survivor? ¹⁵ O Lord, God of Israel, you are righteous. We survive only as a remnant. We come here before you in our guilt. Because of this, none of us can stand in your presence.”

Chapter 10

The People’s Response. ¹ While Ezra was praying and acknowledging their guilt as he wept and prostrated himself in front of the temple of God, a vast assemblage of men, women, and children gathered around him as the people wept profusely. ² Then Shecaniah, the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, spoke up and said to Ezra: “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples of this land. However, in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel. ³ Let us now make a covenant with our God to send away all these wives and their children, in accordance with the counsel of my lord and of those who fear the commandments of our God. Let it be done in accordance with the law.^{[i] 4} Rise up, then, for the matter is in your hands. We will support you. Therefore, have courage and take action!”

⁵ Then Ezra rose to his feet and put the leading priests and Levites and all Israel under oath to do what had been said. In unison they took the oath. ⁶ Then Ezra departed from his place before the house of God and entered the room of Jehohanan, the son of Eliashib, where he spent the night without eating food or drinking water, because he was in mourning over the betrayal by the exiles.

⁷ A proclamation was issued throughout Judah and Jerusalem that all of the exiles were to assemble in Jerusalem, ⁸ and that those who failed to appear within three days, as specified by the officials and the elders, would forfeit their property and be excluded from the assembly of the exiles.

⁹ All the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered together in Jerusalem three days later, on the twentieth day of the ninth month. All the people sat down in the open square before the house of God, greatly distressed because of the matter at hand and because they had no shelter from the heavy rain. ¹⁰ Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them: “You have been unfaithful in marrying foreign wives, thus adding to Israel’s guilt. ¹¹ Now confess to the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the people of the land and from foreign women.”

¹² Then all those who had assembled replied loudly, saying in unison: “We shall do as you say. ¹³ However, there are many people here; it is the rainy season, and we cannot stay out in the open. Besides, this is something that cannot be resolved in one or two days, since those of us who have sinned in this regard comprise a vast number.

¹⁴ “Therefore, permit our officials to represent the entire community, and let all those in our towns who have married foreign wives present themselves at designated times, accompanied by the elders and the judges for each town, until the fierce anger of our God at what has occurred has been turned away from us.” ¹⁵ Only Jonathan, the son of Asahel, and Jahzeiah, the son of Tikvah, supported by Meshullam and Shabbethai, the Levites, opposed this proposal.^[j]

¹⁶ The Guilty. The exiles did as had been proposed, while Ezra the priest selected men who were family heads, representing their families, each of them designated by name. They met in sessions to examine the matter, beginning with the first day of the tenth month. ¹⁷ By the first day of the first month they had passed judgment on all the men who had married foreign women.

¹⁸ Among the members of priestly families, the following were found to have married foreign women: of the sons of Jeshua, son of Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah, ¹⁹ who pledged to dismiss their wives, and their guilt offering was a ram from the flock for their guilt;

²⁰ of the sons of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah; ²¹ of the sons of Harim: Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, and Uzziah; ²² of the sons of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah;

²³ of the Levites: Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah (also called Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer;

²⁴ of the singers: Eliashib, and of the gatekeepers: Shallum, Telem, and Uri.

²⁵ Among the Israelites: of the sons of Parosh: Ramiah, Izziah, Malchijah, Mijamin, Eleazar, Malchijah, and Benaiah; ²⁶ of the sons of Elam: Mattaniah, Zechariah, Jehiel, Abdi, Jeremoth, and Elijah; ²⁷ of the sons of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Jeremoth, Zabad, and Aziza;

²⁸ of the sons of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, and Athlai; ²⁹ of the sons of Bani: Meshullam, Malluch, Adaiah, Jashub, Sheal, and Jeremoth; ³⁰ of the sons of Pahath-moab: Adna, Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui, and Manasseh;

³¹ of the sons of Harim: Eliezer, Isshijah, Malchijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon, ³² Benjamin, Malluch, and Shemariah; ³³ of the sons of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, and Shimei; ³⁴ of the sons of Bani: Maadai, Amram, Uel ³⁵ Benaiah, Bedaiah, Cheluhi, ³⁶ Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib, ³⁷ Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasu; ³⁸ of the sons of Binnui: Shimei, ³⁹ Shelemiah, Nathan, and Adaiah; ⁴⁰ of the sons of Zachai: Shashai, Sharai, ⁴¹ Azarel, Shelemiah, Shemariah, ⁴² Shallum, Amariah, Joseph; ⁴³ of the sons of Nebo: Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jaddai, Joel, Benaiah.

⁴⁴ All these had married foreign woman but sent them away with their children.