8:1 These [are] now the chief of their fathers, and [this is] the genealogy of them that went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of {a} Artaxerxes the king. (a) Read Ezr 7:1-28. 8:13 And of the {b} last sons of Adonikam, whose names [are] these, Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them threescore males. (b) That came to go with Ezra. 8:15 And I gathered them together to the {c} river that runneth to Ahava; and there abode we in tents three days: and I viewed the people, and the priests, and found there none of the sons of Levi. (c) To that place of Euphrates, where the Ahava river enters it. 8:17 And I sent them with commandment unto Iddo the {d} chief at the place Casiphia, and I told them what they should say unto Iddo, [and] to his brethren the Nethinims, at the place Casiphia, that they should bring unto us ministers for the house of our God. (d) He was the chief teacher of the law to the Levites. 8:21 Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict {f} ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. (f) He shows that the purpose of fasting is to humble the body to the spirit, which must proceed from the heart that is touched, or else it is hypocrisy. 8:22 For I was {g} ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God [is] upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath [is] against all them that forsake him. (g) He thought it better to commit himself to the protection of God, than by seeking these ordinary means to give others a reason to think that he doubted God's power. 8:26 I even weighed unto their hand six hundred and fifty {h} talents of silver, and silver vessels an hundred talents, [and] of gold an hundred talents; (h) Read 1Ki 9:14. 8:27 Also twenty basons of gold, of a thousand {i} drams; and two vessels of fine copper, precious as gold. (i) Read Ezr 2:69. 8:31 Then we departed from the river of Ahava on the twelfth [day] of the first month, to go unto 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 {k} wait by the way. (k) This declared that their journey was full of danger and yet God delivered them according to their prayer. 8:33 Now on the fourth day was the silver and the gold and the vessels 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, {l} Levites; (l) This was a token of a good conscience and of his integrity that he would have witnesses of his fidelity. | |