21. Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.
22. For I was 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 to 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.
23. So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was entreated by us.
24. Then I separated twelve of the chief of the priests, Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brethren with them,
25. And weighed to them the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, even the offering of the house of our God, which the king, and his counselors, and his lords, and all Israel there present, had offered:
26. I even weighed to their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels a hundred talents, and of gold a hundred talents;
27. Also twenty basins of gold, of a thousand drams; and two vessels of fine copper, precious as gold.
28. And I said to them, Ye are holy to the LORD; the vessels are holy also; and the silver and the gold are a free-will-offering to the LORD God of your fathers.
29. Watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them, before the chief of the priests and the Levites, and chief of the fathers of Israel, at Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of the LORD.
30. So the priests and the Levites took the weight of the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem to the house of our God.