Nehemiah 7:72
And that which the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand drams of gold, and two thousand pound of silver, and threescore and seven priests’ garments. And that which the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand drams of gold, and two thousand pound of silver, and threescore and seven priests’ garments.
The record falls within the period of Ezra and Nehemiah, whose life and setting belong among the subjects of Babylonian history and archaeology.
Taken with the two verses before it, it records a combined gift of the governor, the rulers, and the rest of the people in gold and silver amounting in modern money to about three hundred thousand dollars, exactly double a one-hundred-fifty-thousand-dollar fund.
The portion credited to the rest of the people was given freely by a poor people, the children of the captivity, scarcely fifty thousand strong.
Their liberality is an example to be followed and not outdone, proving that raising funds for carrying on the work of God has always been an essential part of the gospel.