21. Then I called for a fast there at the Ahava River so that we might submit before our God and ask of him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our possessions.
22. I had been ashamed to ask the king for a group of soldiers and cavalry to help us in facing enemies on the way, because we had told the king, "The power of God favors all who seek him, but his fierce wrath is against all who abandon him."
23. So we fasted and prayed to our God for this, and he responded to us.
24. Then I selected twelve of the leading priests, Sherebiah and Hashabiah and ten of their relatives with them.
25. I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the equipment, the offering for the house of our God that the king, his counselors, his officials, and all Israel present there had offered.
26. I weighed out into their keeping six hundred fifty kikkars of silver, one hundred silver containers weighing a certain number of kikkars, one hundred kikkars of gold,
27. twenty gold bowls worth one thousand darics, and two containers of highly polished copper, which were as precious as gold.