59. Guard them carefully until you reach the Temple. There in the priests' rooms, hand them over to the leaders of the priests and the Levites and to the leaders of the people of Israel in Jerusalem.”
60. So the priests and the Levites took charge of the silver, the gold, and the utensils for Jerusalem and brought them to the Temple.
61. It was on the twelfth day of the first month that we left the River Theras, and with the Lord's presence and protection we reached Jerusalem. He protected us from all our enemies on our journey, and we arrived safely.
62. After we had been there three days, we went to the Temple, weighed the silver and gold and handed it all over to Meremoth the priest, son of Uriah.
63. With him were Eleazar son of Phinehas and two Levites, Jozabad son of Jeshua and Moeth son of Sabannus.
64. Everything was counted and weighed, and a complete record was made at the same time.
65. All those who had returned from exile then offered sacrifices to the Lord, the God of Israel. They offered twelve bulls for all Israel, 96 rams,
66. and 72 lambs; they also offered twelve goats as a fellowship offering. They sacrificed all these animals to the Lord.
67. Then they took the decree the emperor had given them and gave it to the governors and officials of Greater Syria and Phoenicia, who then honoured the Jewish people and the Temple of the Lord.
68. After all this had been done, some of the leaders of the people of Israel came and told me that
69. the people, the leaders, the priests, and the Levites had not kept themselves separate from the people in the neighbouring countries of Edom, Moab, and Egypt, or from the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, and Jebusites. They were doing the same disgusting things that those people did.
70. God's holy people had become contaminated because Jewish men were marrying foreign women. Even the leaders and the officials had taken part in this breaking of the Law from the very beginning.