22. For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to defend us against the enemy in the way because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all those that seek him for good; but his power and his wrath is against all those that forsake him.
23. So we fasted and besought our God for this, and he was intreated of us.
24. Then I separated twelve of the principals of the priests, Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them,
25. and weighed unto them the silver and the gold and the vessels, the offering for the house of our God, which the king and his counsellors and his princes and all those that were of Israel had offered.
26. I weighed, therefore, unto their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver and silver vessels of one hundred talents and of gold one hundred talents;
27. also twenty basins of gold, of a thousand drams, and two vessels of clean brass, precious as gold.
28. And I said unto them, Ye are holiness unto the Lord; the vessels are holiness also; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering unto the Lord God of your fathers.
29. Watch and keep them until you weigh them before the princes of the priests and the Levites and of the princes of the fathers of Israel in Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the Lord.
30. The priests and the Levites received the weight of the silver and of the gold and of the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem unto the house of our God.
31. And we departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth of the first month to go to Jerusalem; and the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and of such as lay in wait by the way.
32. And we came to Jerusalem and abode there three days.
33. Now on the fourth day the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed in the house of our God by the hand of Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the priest; and with him was Eleazar, the son of Phinehas; and with them was Jozabad, the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah, the son of Binnui, Levites;
34. by number and by weight of each one; and all the weight was written at that time.
35. Those that had been carried away, the sons of the captivity, offered burnt offerings unto the God of Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, twelve he goats as sin; all this was a burnt offering unto the Lord.
36. And they delivered the king’s commissions unto the king’s lieutenants and captains of the other side the river, which favoured the people and the house of God.