10 These are the names on the sealed agreement: Nehemiah the governor. Nehemiah was the son of Hacaliah. Zedekiah, ²Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, ³Pashhur, Amariah, Malkijah, ⁴Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, ⁵Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, ⁶Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, ⁷Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, ⁸Maaziah, Bilgai, and Shemaiah. These were the names of the priests that put their names on the sealed agreement. ⁹And these are the Levites that put their names on the sealed agreement: Jeshua son of Azaniah, Binnui from the family of Henadad, Kadmiel, ¹⁰and their brothers: Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, ¹¹Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah, ¹²Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, ¹³Hodiah, Bani, and Beninu. ¹⁴And these are the names of the leaders that put their names on the sealed agreement: Parosh, Pahath-Moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani, ¹⁵Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, ¹⁶Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, ¹⁷Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur, ¹⁸Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai, ¹⁹Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, ²⁰Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, ²¹Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua, ²²Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, ²³Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub, ²⁴Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek, ²⁵Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, ²⁶Ahiah, Hanan, Anan, ²⁷Malluch, Harim, and Baanah. ^28–29So, all these people now make this special promise to God. And they all ask for bad things to happen if they don’t keep their promise. All these people promise to follow the Law of God. That Law of God was given to us through Moses his servant. These people promise to carefully obey all the commands, rules, and teachings of the Lord our God. Now, these are the people that are making this promise: The rest of the people—the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, temple servants, and all the people of Israel that separated themselves from the people living around them. They have separated themselves to obey God’s law. And also all their wives and all their sons and daughters that are able to listen and understand. All these people joined their brothers and the important people to accept for themselves the promise to obey God’s Law. And they accepted the curse that asks for bad things to happen to them if they don’t obey God’s Law. ³⁰“We promise not to let our daughters marry the people living around us. And we promise not to let our sons marry their daughters. ³¹“We promise not to work on the Sabbath day. If the people living around us bring grain or other things to sell on the Sabbath, we won’t buy those things on that special day or on any other holiday. Every seventh year,* we won’t plant or work the land. And every seventh year, we will cancel every debt that other people owe to us. ³²“We will accept the responsibility for obeying the commands to take care of God’s temple.* We will give 1/3 shekel* {of silver} each year to support the temple service to honor our God. ³³This money will pay for the special bread that the priests put on the table in the temple. It will pay for the daily grain offerings and burnt offerings. It will pay for the offerings on the Sabbaths, New Moon* festivals, and other special meetings. It will pay for the holy offerings and for the sin offerings that make the people of Israel pure.* It will pay for any work needed on the temple of our God. ³⁴“We—the priests, the Levites, and the people—have thrown lots.* Why? To decide when each of our families is to bring a gift of wood to the temple of our God at certain times each year. The wood is to burn on the altar of the Lord our God. We must do that just as it is written in the Law. ³⁵“We also accept the responsibility of bringing the firstfruits from our crops and from every fruit tree. We will bring that fruit to the Lord’s temple* each year. ³⁶“Just as it is also written in the Law, this is what we will do: We will bring our firstborn sons, and the firstborn cows, sheep, and goats. We will bring those firstborn to the temple of our God. We will bring them to the priests that are serving there. ³⁷“And we will also bring to the storage rooms of the Lord’s temple,* to the priests, these things: The first of our ground meal, the first of our grain offerings, the firstfruit from all our trees, and first part from our new wine and oil. And we will bring a tenth of our crops to the Levites. Why? Because the Levites collect these things in all the towns where we work. ³⁸A priest from the family of Aaron must be with the Levites when they receive those crops. And then the Levites must bring those crops to the temple of our God. Then they will put them in the storerooms of the temple treasury. ³⁹The people of Israel and the Levites must bring their gifts to the storerooms. They are to bring their gifts of grain, new wine, and oil. All the things for the temple are kept in those storerooms. And that is where the priests that are on duty stay. And also the singers and gatekeepers stay there. “We all promise that we will take care of the temple of our God!”

seventh year See Ex. 23:10, 11. temple The special building in Jerusalem for Jewish worship. 1/3 shekel This was probably a coin at this time, but 1 shekel is 2/5 ounce (11.5g). New Moon This was the first day of the Hebrew month. There were special meetings on these days to worship God. make … pure Or, “make atonement.” The Hebrew word means “to cover or erase a person’s sins.” lots Sticks, stones, or pieces of bone used like dice for making decisions. See Prov. 16:33.

New People Move into Jerusalem

11 Now the leaders of the people of Israel moved into the city of Jerusalem. The other people of Israel had to decide who else would move into the city. So they threw lots,* and one out of every ten people had to live in Jerusalem, the holy city. The other nine people could live in their own home towns. ²Some people volunteered to live in Jerusalem. The other people thanked and blessed them for volunteering. ³Here are the leaders of the provinces that lived in Jerusalem. (Some of the people of Israel, priests, Levites, temple servants, and descendants of Solomon’s servants lived in the towns of Judah. Each person lived on his own land in the different towns. ⁴And other people from the families of Judah and Benjamin lived in the city of Jerusalem.) These are the descendants* of Judah that moved into Jerusalem: Athaiah son of Uzziah (Uzziah was the son of Zechariah, who was the son of Amariah, who was the son of Shephatiah, who was the son of Mahalalel, who was a descendant of Perez) ⁵and Maaseiah son of Baruch, (Baruch was the son of Col-Hozeh, who was the son of Hazaiah, who was the son of Adaiah, who was the son of Joiarib, who was the son of Zechariah, who was a descendant of Shelah). ⁶The number of Perez’s descendants living in Jerusalem was 468. All of them were brave men. ⁷These are the descendants* of Benjamin that moved into Jerusalem: Sallu son of Meshullam (Meshullam was the son of Joed, who was the son of Pedaiah, who was the son of Kolaiah, who was the son of Maaseiah, who was the son of Ithiel, who was the son of Jeshaiah), ⁸and those that followed Jeshaiah were Gabbai and Sallai. All together there were 928 men. ⁹Joel son of Zicri was in charge of them. And Judah son of Hassenuah was in charge of the Second District of the city of Jerusalem. ¹⁰These are the priests that moved into Jerusalem: Jedaiah son of Joiarib, Jakin, ¹¹and Seraiah son of Hilkiah (Hilkiah was the son of Meshullam, who was the son of Zadok, who was the son of Meraioth, who was the son of Ahitub, who was the supervisor in the temple of God), ¹²and 822 men of their brothers that did the work for the temple, and Adaiah son of Jeroham (Jeroham was the son of Pelaliah, who was the son of Amzi, who was the son of Zechariah, who was the son of Pashhur, who was the son of Malkijah), ¹³and 242 men that were Malkijah’s brothers (These men were leaders of their families), Amashsai son of Azarel (Azarel was the son of Ahzai, who was the son of Meshillemoth, who was the son of Immer), ¹⁴and 128 of Immer’s brothers. (These men were brave soldiers. The officer over them was Zabdiel son of Haggedolim.) ¹⁵These are the Levites that moved into Jerusalem: Shemaiah son of Hasshub (Hasshub was the son of Azrikam, who was the son of Hashabiah, who was the son of Bunni), ¹⁶Shabbethai and Jozabad (These two men were leaders of the Levites. They were in charge of the outside work of God’s temple), ¹⁷Mattaniah (Mattaniah was the son of Mica, who was the son of Zabdi, who was the son of Asaph, who was the choir director. Asaph led the people in singing songs of praise and prayer), Bakbukiah (Bakbukiah was the second in charge over his brothers), and Abda son of Shammua, (Shammua was the son of Galal, who was the son of Jeduthun). ¹⁸So, there were 284 Levites that moved into Jerusalem, the holy city. ¹⁹These are the gatekeepers that moved into Jerusalem: Akkub, Talmon, and 172 of their brothers. They watched and guarded the gates of the city. ²⁰The other people of Israel, and the other priests and Levites, lived in all the towns of Judah. Each person lived on the land that his ancestors had owned. ²¹The temple servants lived on the hill of Ophel. Ziha and Gishpa were in charge of those temple servants. ²²The officer over the Levites in Jerusalem was Uzzi. Uzzi was the son of Bani (Bani was the son of Hashabiah, who was the son of Mattaniah, who was the son of Mica). Uzzi was a descendant of Asaph. Asaph’s descendants were the singers that were responsible for the service in God’s temple. ²³The singers obeyed orders from the king. Those orders from the king told the singers what to do from day to day. ²⁴The man that told the people what the king wanted done was named Pethahiah. (Pethahiah was the son of Meshezabel, who was one of the descendants of Zerah. Zerah was Judah’s son.) ²⁵The people of Judah lived in these towns: In Kiriath Arba and the small towns around it, in Dibon and the small towns around it, in Jekabzeel and the small towns around it, ²⁶and in Jeshua, in Moladah, in Beth Pelet, ²⁷in Hazar Shual, in Beersheba and the small towns around it, ²⁸and in Ziklag, in Meconah and the small towns around it, ²⁹and in En Rimmon, in Zorah, in Jarmuth, ³⁰and in Zanoah and Adullam and the small towns around them, in Lachish and the fields around it, and in Azekah and the small towns around it. So the people of Judah were living all the way from Beersheba to the Valley of Hinnom. ³¹The descendants* of the family of Benjamin from Geba lived in Micmash, Aija, Bethel and the small towns around it, ³²in Anathoth, Nob and Ananiah, ³³in Hazor, Ramah and Gittaim, ³⁴in Hadid, Zeboim, and Neballat, ³⁵in Lod and Ono, and in the Valley of the Craftsmen. ³⁶Some of the groups of the people from the family of Levi moved to the land of Benjamin.

lots Sticks, stones, or pieces of bone used like dice for making decisions. See Prov. 16:33. descendants A person’s children and all of their future families.