25. Mattaniah, Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, and Akkub were gatekeepers standing guard at the storehouses by the gates.
26. They lived in the days of Joiakim, son of Jeshua, grandson of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor and of Ezra the priest and scribe.
27. When the wall of Jerusalem was going to be dedicated, they went to wherever the Levites lived and had them come to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication joyfully with hymns of thanksgiving, with songs and cymbals, and with harps and lyres.
28. So the groups of singers came together from the countryside around Jerusalem, from the villages of Netophah,
29. from Beth Gilgal, and from the region of Geba and Azmaveth. The singers had built villages for themselves around Jerusalem.
30. The priests and the Levites cleansed themselves. Then they cleansed the people, the gates, and the wall.
31. Then I had the leaders of Judah come up on the wall, and I arranged two large choirs to give thanks and march in procession. One choir went to the right on the wall to Dung Gate.