1. After we finished building the wall and put the doors in the gates, we chose the men who would guard the gates and the men to sing in the Temple and help the priests.
2. Next, I put my brother Hanani in charge of Jerusalem. I chose another man named Hananiah to be the commander of the fort. I picked Hanani because he was a very honest man and he feared God more than most people do.
3. Then I said to Hanani and Hananiah, “Each day you must wait until the sun has been up for several hours before you open the gates of Jerusalem. You must shut and lock the gates before the sun goes down. Also choose people who live in Jerusalem as guards. Put some of them at special places to guard the city, and put the other people near their own houses.”
4. Now the city was large and there was plenty of room. But there were few people in it, and the houses had not yet been rebuilt.
5. So my God put it in my heart to have all the people meet together. I called together all the important people, the officials, and the common people. I did this so that I could make a list of all the families. I found the family lists of the people who had been the first to return from captivity. This is what I found written there:
6. These are the people of the province who came back from captivity. In the past, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took them as prisoners to Babylon. These people came back to Jerusalem and Judah. They all went to their own towns.
7. They returned with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, and Baanah. This is the list of names and numbers of men from Israel who came back:
8. the descendants of Parosh 2172
9. the descendants of Shephatiah 372
10. the descendants of Arah 652
11. the descendants of Pahath Moab of the family line of Jeshua and Joab 2818
12. the descendants of Elam 1254
13. the descendants of Zattu 845
14. the descendants of Zaccai 760