2:1 These were the people in the province. They were the ones who left the place where the exiles had been taken captive. (King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had taken them to Babylon.) These exiles returned to Jerusalem and Judah. All of them went to their own cities.
2:2 They went with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. This is the number of Israelite men from the people in exile:
2:57 Shephatiah, Hattil, Pochereth Hazzebaim, and Ami.
2:58 The temple servants and the descendants of Solomon’s servants totaled 392.
2:59 The following people came from Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer, but they couldn’t prove they were Israelites on the basis of their father’s family or their genealogy:
2:60 the descendants of Delaiah, Tobiah, and Nekoda. These people totaled 652.
2:61 These descendants of the priests couldn’t prove their families were Israelites: the descendants of Hobaiah, Hakkoz, and Barzillai (who had married one of the daughters of Barzillai from Gilead and took that family name).
2:62 These people searched for their family names in the genealogical records, but their names couldn’t be found there. For this reason they were considered contaminated and couldn’t be priests.
2:63 The governor told them not to eat any of the most holy food until a priest could use the Urim and Thummim to settle the problem.
2:68 When some of the heads of the families came to Yahweh’s temple in Jerusalem, they contributed freewill offerings to help rebuild Elohim’s temple on its former site.
2:69 They contributed as much as they could to the treasury for this work: 1,030 pounds of gold, 5,740 pounds of silver, and 100 robes for the priests.
2:70 The priests, the Levites, some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants settled in their own cities. All the other Israelites settled in their own cities.
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