Ezra 10:4

¹⁰Take heed now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary. Be strong, and do it.”

¹⁰Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor plan, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol,^[+] where you are going.

¹⁹Now set your heart and your soul to follow the LORD your God. Arise therefore, and build the sanctuary of the LORD God, to bring the ark of the LORD’s covenant and the holy vessels of God into the house that is to be built for the LORD’s name.”

¹²Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees, ¹³and make straight paths for your feet,so what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

²⁴Let’s consider how to provoke one another to love and good works,

³Strengthen the weak hands, and make the feeble knees firm. ⁴Tell those who have a fearful heart, “Be strong! Don’t be afraid! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God’s retribution. He will come and save you.

¹⁶of the gold, the silver, the bronze, and the iron, there is no number. Arise and be doing, and may the LORD be with you.”

²³Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done exactly for the house of the God of heaven; for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?

²⁴Also we inform you that it shall not be lawful to impose tribute, custom, or toll on any of the priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, temple servants, or laborers of this house of God.

²⁵You, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people who are beyond the River, who all know the laws of your God; and teach him who doesn’t know them. ²⁶Whoever will not do the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be executed on him with all diligence, whether it is to death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.

²⁷Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the LORD’s house which is in Jerusalem; ²⁸and has extended loving kindness to me before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty princes. I was strengthened according to the LORD my God’s hand on me, and I gathered together chief men out of Israel to go up with me.

¹⁰The LORD said to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face like that? ¹¹Israel has sinned. Yes, they have even transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. Yes, they have even taken some of the devoted things, and have also stolen, and also deceived. They have even put it among their own stuff. ¹²Therefore the children of Israel can’t stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction. I will not be with you any more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. ¹³Get up! Sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, for the LORD, the God of Israel, says, “There is a devoted thing among you, Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted thing from among you.” ¹⁴In the morning therefore you shall be brought near by your tribes. It shall be that the tribe which the LORD selects shall come near by families. The family which the LORD selects shall come near by households. The household which the LORD selects shall come near man by man. ¹⁵It shall be, that he who is taken with the devoted thing shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the LORD’s covenant, and because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel.’”

¹⁶So Joshua rose up early in the morning and brought Israel near by their tribes. The tribe of Judah was selected. ¹⁷He brought near the family of Judah, and he selected the family of the Zerahites. He brought near the family of the Zerahites man by man, and Zabdi was selected. ¹⁸He brought near his household man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was selected. ¹⁹Joshua said to Achan, “My son, please give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and make confession to him. Tell me now what you have done! Don’t hide it from me!”

²⁰Achan answered Joshua, and said, “I have truly sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel, and this is what I have done. ²¹When I saw among the plunder a beautiful Babylonian robe, two hundred shekels^[+] of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, then I coveted them and took them. Behold, they are hidden in the ground in the middle of my tent, with the silver under it.”

²²So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent. Behold, it was hidden in his tent, with the silver under it. ²³They took them from the middle of the tent, and brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel. They laid them down before the LORD. ²⁴Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his cattle, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had; and they brought them up to the valley of Achor. ²⁵Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? The LORD will trouble you today.” All Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned them with fire and stoned them with stones. ²⁶They raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. The LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore the name of that place was called “The valley of Achor” to this day.

²¹Behold, there are the divisions of the priests and the Levites for all the service of God’s house. Every willing man who has skill for any kind of service shall be with you in all kinds of work. Also the captains and all the people will be entirely at your command.”