The Daily Audio Bible

²¹ Then I proclaimed a fast there at the Ahava River so that we might humble ourselves before our God and seek from Him a straight way for us, our little ones, and all of our possessions. ²² For I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and cavalry to protect us from the enemy along the way, because we had spoken to the king saying, “The gracious hand of our God is upon everyone who seeks Him, but His great anger is against everyone who forsakes Him.” ²³ So we fasted and sought our God about this, and He responded to our plea.

²⁴ Then I set apart twelve of the leading kohanim—Sherebiah, Hashabiah and with them ten of their brothers— ²⁵ and I weighed out for them the silver, the gold and the utensils, the contribution to the House of our God that the king, his counselors, his officials and all Israel who were present had offered. ²⁶ Specifically, I weighed into their hand 650 talents of silver, silver utensils worth 100 talents, 100 talents of gold, ²⁷ 20 golden bowels valued at 1000 darics, and two exquisite vessels of gleaming bronze, as precious as gold.

²⁸ Then I said to them, “You are holy to Adonai and the vessels are holy. The silver and the gold are a freewill offering to Adonai, the God of your fathers. ²⁹ Guard them carefully until you weigh them before the leading kohanim and the Levites and the leading patriarchs of Israel in Jerusalem, in the storerooms of the House of Adonai.” ³⁰ So the kohanim and the Levites received the silver, the gold and the vessels by weight to bring them to Jerusalem to the House of our God.

³¹ Then we set out from the Ahava River on the twelfth day of the first month to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was upon us and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambush along the way. ³² So we came to Jerusalem and remained there for three days. ³³ On the fourth day the silver, the gold, and the utensils were weighed out in the House of our God into the hand of Meremoth the son of Uriah the kohen. Eleazar the son of Phinehas was with him, and so were the Levites Jozabad the son of Jeshua and Noadiah the son of Binnui. ³⁴ Everything was accounted for by number and weight, and the total weight was recorded at that time.

³⁵ Then the exiles returning from captivity sacrificed burnt offerings to the God of Israel: 12 bulls for all Israel, 96 rams, 77 lambs and as a sin offering 12 male goats. All of this was a burnt offering to Adonai. ³⁶ Then they delivered the decrees of the king to the king’s Persian governors and to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, who then gave help to the people and the House of God.

Interceding for Unfaithful Remnant

9 Now when these things had been completed, the leaders approached me to say: “The people of Israel, the kohanim and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands who practice detestable things just like the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites. ² For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons and have mingled the holy seed with the peoples of the lands. Indeed, the hand of the leaders and the officials have been at the forefront in this unfaithful act.”

³ When I heard this report, I tore my garment and my robe, and pulled out some of the hair from my head and from my beard. Then I sat down devastated. ⁴ Everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered themselves around me because of the unfaithful act of the exiles. Devastated, I sat there until the evening offering.

⁵ At the time of the evening offering, I rose up from my self-abasement with my garment and robe torn, then I bowed down on my knees and spread out my hands to Adonai my God. ⁶ I prayed, “O my God, I am ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God! For our iniquities are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. ⁷ From the days of our fathers to this day our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities we, our kings and our kohanim have been subjected to the sword, to captivity, to plunder and to humiliation at the hand of the kings of the lands, as it is today.

⁸ “But now for a brief moment Adonai our God has shown us favor in leaving us a remnant and giving us as a peg in His holy place. Thus our God has enlightened our eyes and has given us a little relief in our bondage. ⁹ Though we are slaves, our God has not forsaken us in our bondage. He has extended lovingkindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, reviving us in order to restore the House of our God, to raise up its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.

¹⁰ “So now, our God, what should we say after this? For we have forsaken Your mitzvot ¹¹ that You commanded through Your servants the prophets saying, ‘The land that you are entering to possess is a land defiled by the impurities of the peoples of the lands. Through their abominations, they have filled it from one end to the other with their uncleanness. ¹² Therefore, do not give your daughters to their sons nor take their daughters for your sons. Do not seek their shalom or their welfare, so that you may be strong, eat the good things of the land and leave it as an inheritance for your children forever.’

¹³ “After everything that has happened to us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt—for You, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and given us a remnant such as this— ¹⁴ shall we once again break Your mitzvot and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable actions as these? Would You not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor? ¹⁵ Adonai, God of Israel, You are righteous, for we are left this day as a remnant. Behold, here we are before You in our guilt; because of it no one can stand before You.”

Removing the “Hametz” from Your House

5 It is actually reported that among you there is sexual immorality, and such immorality as is not even among the pagans—that someone has his father’s wife. ² And you are puffed up! Shouldn’t you have mourned instead, so that the one who did this deed might be removed from among you? ³ For even though I am absent in body, I am present in spirit—I have already passed judgment on the one who has done this thing, as though I were present. ⁴ When you are gathered together in the name of our Lord Yeshua, I am with you in spirit. With the power of our Lord Yeshua, ⁵ you are to turn such a fellow over to satan for the destruction of his fleshly nature,^[a] so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Yeshua.

⁶ Your boasting is no good. Don’t you know that a little hametz leavens the whole batch of dough? ⁷ Get rid of the old hametz,^[b] so you may be a new batch, just as you are unleavened—for Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. ⁸ Therefore let us celebrate the feast not with old hametz,^[c] the hametz of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened bread—the matzah of sincerity and truth.

⁹ I wrote to you in my letter not to mix together^[d] with sexually immoral people— ¹⁰ not at all meaning the sexually immoral people of this world or the greedy or swindlers or idolaters, for then you would have to exit the world. ¹¹ But now I am writing to you not to mix together with anyone who is being called a brother if he is sexually immoral or greedy or an idolater or a slanderer or a drunkard or a swindler—not even to eat with such a fellow. ¹² For what business do I have judging outsiders? Don’t you judge those who are inside? ¹³ But those who are outside, God judges. Put away the wicked fellow from among yourselves.^[e]

Refuge, Sukkah, Shelter

Psalm 31

Adonai Weighs the Heart