1 After this the leaders of the family houses were chosen to go up, according to their tribes, with their wives, sons, daughters, their male and female servants, and their farm animals.
2 Darius sent with them one thousand cavalry to restore them back in Jerusalem in peace. With the music of drums and flutes,
3 all of their Jewish relatives were celebrating. Darius commanded them to go along with them.
4 These are the names of the men in charge of their assigned groups, who went up according to their families in the tribes:
5 the priests, the sons of Phinehas son of Aaron; Jeshua son of Jozadak son of Seraiah, and Joakim son of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, from the house of David, from the family line of Phares, and from the tribe of Judah,
6 who spoke wise words to Persia’s King Darius, in the second year of his rule, in the first month, the month of Nisan.
7 These are the ones from Judea who came up out of their captivity in exile, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had taken to Babylon
8 and who returned to Jerusalem and Judea, each to their own city. They came with their leaders Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Resaiah, Eneneus, Mordecai, Beelsarus, Aspharasus, Reelaiah, Rehum, and Baanah.
29 The temple servants: the family of Esau, the family of Hasupha, the family of Tabbaoth, the family of Keros, the family of Suah, the family of Padon, the family of Lebanah, the family of Hagabah,
30 the family of Akkub, the family of Uthai, the family of Ketab, the family of Hagabah, the family of Subai, the family of Hana, the family of Cathua, the family of Geddur,
31 the family of Jairus, the family of Daisan, the family of Noeba, the family of Chezib, the family of Gazera, the family of Uzza, the family of Phinoe, the family of Hasrah, the family ofBasthai, the family of Asnah, the family of Maani, the family of Nephisim, the family of Acuph, the family of Hakupha, the family of Asur, the family of Pharakim, the family of Bazluth,
32 the family of Mehida, the family of Cutha, the family of Charea, the family of Barkos, the family of Serar, the family of Temah, the family of Neziah, the family of Hatipha.
33 The family of Solomon’s servants—the family of Assaphioth, the family of Peruda, the family of Jaalah, the family of Lozon, the family of Isdael, the family of Shephatiah,
34 the family of Agia, the family of Pochereth-hazzebaim, the family of Sarothie, the family of Masiah, the family of Gas, the family of Addus, the family of Subas, the family of Apherra, the family of Barodis, the family of Shaphat, the family of Allon.
35 All the temple servants and the family of Solomon’s servants numbered 372.
36 These following persons are those who went up from Tel-melah and Tel-harsha, under the leadership of Cherub, Addan, and Immer,
37 who weren’t able to prove by their family houses or by their lineage that they had descended from Israel: the family of Delaiah, Tobiah’s son, and the family of Nekoda, 652.
38 Also from the priests, the following persons had assumed the priestly office but were found to be unqualified: the family of Habaiah, the family of Hakkoz, and the family of Jaddus, who had married Agia, one of the daughters of Barzillai, and was called by his name.
39 When they inspected the registry and didn’t find the lineage of these men, they excluded them from the service of the priesthood.
40 Nehemiah and Attharias told them not to share in the holy things until a high priest arrives wearing Clarity and Truth.
41 All those who were from Israel, 12 or more years old, excluding male and female servants, were 42,360; their male and female servants were 7,337; there were 245 harpists and singers.
42 There were 435 camels, 7,036 horses, 245 mules, and 5,525 donkeys.
43 Some of the leaders of the family houses, when they came to God’s temple in Jerusalem, solemnly pledged that they would erect the house on its site,
44 and that they would give to the sacred treasury for the work one thousand manehs of gold, five thousand manehs of silver, and one hundred priests’ robes.
45 The priests, the Levites, and some of the people took up residence in Jerusalem and the surrounding area. The temple singers, the gatekeepers, and the rest of Israel settled in the villages.
46 When the seventh month came and the Israelites were all in their own homes, they gathered together in the square near the first gate on the eastern side.
47 Then Jeshua, Jozadak’s son with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel, Shealtiel’s son with his group, took their positions and prepared the altar of the God of Israel
48 to offer up entirely burned offerings, according to the stipulations in the scroll from Moses, the man of God.
49 Some from the other neighboring peoples gathered with them. They erected the altar in its proper place (even though all the other neighboring peoples were hostile to them and were stronger than they were). They offered sacrifices and entirely burned offerings to the Lord at the proper morning and evening times.
50 They celebrated the Festival of Booths, as it is commanded in the Law, and offered sacrifices daily as expected,
51 in addition to the continual offerings and sacrifices on sabbaths, at new moons, and at all the sacred feasts.
52 All who made a solemn promise to God began to offer sacrifices to God, from the new moon of the seventh month, even though God’s temple wasn’t yet rebuilt.
53 They gave money to the stonemasons and the carpenters, along with daily meals. They gave gifts to the Sidonians and the Tyrians, to deliver cedar logs from Lebanon and ferry them in rafts to the harbor of Joppa, according to the written orders they had from Persia’s King Cyrus.
54 In the second month of the second year, after they came to God’s temple in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel, Shealtiel’s son, and Jeshua, Jozadak’s son, made a new start, together with their associates and the levitical priests and all who had returned to Jerusalem from captivity.
55 They then laid the foundation of God’s temple on the new moon of the second month in the second year of their arrival in Judea and Jerusalem.
56 They appointed the Levites who were 20 years old or more in charge of the Lord’s work.Rising up were Jeshua, his sons and associates; his brother Kadmiel and Jeshua’s sons; Emadabun and Joda’s sons; and Iliadun’s son with their sons and brothers. With them, all the Levites worked with a common purpose doing the work in God’s house.
57 So the builders built God’s temple. The priests stood dressed up in their robes, with musical instruments and trumpets, and the Levites, Asaph’s sons, with cymbals, singing to the Lord and praising him, according to the directions of King David of Israel.
58 They sang hymns, praising the Lord, "God’s goodness and glory are on Israel forever."
59 The people blew trumpets and shouted loudly, singing to the Lord on the occasion of the construction of the Lord’s house.
60 Some of the levitical priests and leaders of family houses, the elderly who had seen the former house, came to this building with much weeping and wailing.
61 Many others came with trumpets and joy, with a tremendous uproar.
62 But the people couldn’t hear the trumpets because of the people’s weeping, even though the crowd was blowing the trumpets so loudly that the noise was heard far away.
63 When the enemies of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin heard it, they came to investigate what the sound of the trumpets meant.
64 They discovered that those who had returned from captivity were building the temple to the Lord God of Israel.
65 So they came before Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the leaders of the family houses and said to them, "We will build with you.
66 We also obey your Lord, and we have been giving offerings to him ever since the days of Assyria’s King Esarhaddon, who transported us here."
67 Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the leaders of the family houses in Israel, however, said to them, "We will have nothing to do with each other in building the house for the Lord our God.
68 We alone will build it for the Lord of Israel, just as Persia’s King Cyrus commanded us."
69 But the neighboring peoples harassed the Judeans and hindered their rebuilding.
70 By scheming, spreading lies among the people, and stirring up trouble, they prevented the completion of the rebuilding as long as King Cyrus lived.
71 They were kept from building for two years, until Darius’ rule.