This counting served to ensure the integrity of the priests and Levites to whom the treasures had been entrusted. It is also likely that Ezra, in keeping with Babylonian and Persian practice, had to send Artaxerxes signed certification that the treasures had been received in the temple.1
33 On the fourth day, within the house of our God, the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed into the hands of Meremoth the priest, son of Uriah, and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas, and with them were the Levites, Jozabad the son of Jeshua and Noadiah the son of Binnui.