6. from the descendants of Adin: Ebed son of Jonathan, and 50 other men;
7. from the descendants of Elam: Jeshaiah son of Athaliah, and 70 other men;
8. from the descendants of Shephatiah: Zebadiah son of Michael, and 80 other men;
9. from the descendants of Joab: Obadiah son of Jehiel, and 218 other men;
10. from the descendants of Bani: Shelomith son of Josiphiah, and 160 other men;
11. from the descendants of Bebai: Zechariah son of Bebai, and 28 other men;
12. from the descendants of Azgad: Johanan son of Hakkatan, and 110 other men;
13. from the last of the descendants of Adonikam: Eliphelet, Jeuel, Shemaiah, and 60 other men;
14. from the descendants of Bigvai: Uthai, Zaccur, and 70 other men.
15. I called all these people to meet together at the river that flows toward Ahava. We camped at that place for three days. I learned there were priests in the group, but there were no Levites.
16. So I called these leaders: Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, and I called Joiarib and Elnathan. (These men were teachers.)
17. I sent the men to Iddo, leader in the town of Casiphia. I told them what to say to Iddo and his relatives, who are the Temple workers in Casiphia. I told the men to ask Iddo and his relatives to send us workers to serve in God’s Temple.
18. Because God was with us, they sent Sherebiah, a skilled man from the descendants of Mahli (Mahli was a son of Levi, one of Israel’s sons.) They also sent his sons and brothers, 18 men in all.
19. They also sent Hashabiah and Jeshaiah from the descendants of Merari, along with their brothers and nephews. In all there were 20 men.
20. Besides these, there were 220 Temple workers whose ancestors had been chosen by David and his officials to help the Levites. The names of all these men were written on the list.
21. There near the Ahava River, I announced that we all should fast. We should fast to make ourselves humble before our God. We wanted to ask God for a safe trip for ourselves, our children, and for everything we owned.
22. I was embarrassed to ask King Artaxerxes for soldiers and horsemen to protect us as we traveled. There were enemies on the road. The reason I was embarrassed to ask for protection was because of what we had told the king. We had said to King Artaxerxes, “Our God is with everyone who trusts him, but he is very angry with everyone who turns away from him.”
23. So we fasted and prayed to our God about our trip. He answered our prayers.