CHAPTER 7

¹And after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra son of Seraiah son of Azariah son of Hilkiah ²son of Shallum son of Zadok son of Ahitub ³son of Amariah son of Azariah son of Meraioth ⁴son of Zerahiah son of Uzzi son of Bukki ⁵son of Abishua son of Phineas son of Eleazar son of Aaron the head priest—⁶he, Ezra, came up from Babylonia, and he was a scribe deft in the teaching of Moses that the LORD God of Israel had given. And the king gave him, through the power of the LORD his God over him, whatever he requested. ⁷And from the Israelites and from the priests and the Levites and the choristers and the gatekeepers and the temple laborers they went up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes. ⁸And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the king’s seventh year. ⁹For on the first day of the first month the going up from Babylonia began, and on the first day of the fifth month he arrived in Jerusalem through the beneficent power of his God over him. ¹⁰For Ezra had readied his heart to seek out the teaching of the LORD and to do and to teach in Israel statute and law.

¹¹And this is the copy of the epistle that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest-scribe, adept in the words of the LORD’s commands and His statutes for Israel: ¹²“Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, scribe of the law of the God of the heavens and so forth. And now, ¹³by me is a decree put forth that whoever in my kingdom from the people of Israel and its priests and Levites who is moved to go to Jerusalem with you may go ¹⁴because you have been sent from before the king and his seven councillors to inspect Yehud and Jerusalem by the law of your God that is in your hand ¹⁵and to bring the silver and gold of the king and his advisors that they have donated to the God of Israel Whose dwelling place is in Jerusalem, ¹⁶and whatever silver and gold that you may find in all the provinces of Babylonia with the donation of the people and the priests that they donate for the house of their God that is in Jerusalem. ¹⁷Because of this, you shall scrupulously purchase with this silver—bulls, rams, sheep, and their grain offerings and their libations and offer them on the altar of the house of your God that is in Jerusalem. ¹⁸And what it pleases you and your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and the gold according to the will of your God you may do. ¹⁹And the vessels that are given to you for the worship in the house of your God give over before the God in Jerusalem. ²⁰And the rest of the needs of the house of your God that fall to you to give, you shall give from the king’s treasury. ²¹And by me, King Artaxerxes, a decree is put forth to all the treasurers of Beyond the River that whatever Ezra the priest, scribe of the law of the God of the heavens, asks of you, you shall scrupulously perform, ²²as much as one hundred talents of silver and as much as one hundred kors of wheat and as much as one hundred bats of wine and as much as one hundred bats of oil, and salt without limit. ²³All this that is by the decree of the God of the heavens shall be done promptly, lest there be fury against the king’s kingdom and his sons. ²⁴And you do we inform that for all the priests and the Levites, the choristers, the gatekeepers, the temple laborers and the workers of this house of God there is no permission to impose tax, levy, tribute, and land tax on them. ²⁵And you, Ezra, with God’s wisdom that you possess, appoint judges and magistrates that will judge all the people that is in Beyond the River, all who know the laws of your God. And him who does not know, you shall inform. ²⁶And as to all who do not do the law of your God and the law of the king promptly, judgment shall be enacted upon him, whether to die, whether to lash him, whether punishment of property or imprisonment.” ²⁷Blessed is the LORD God of our fathers, who has put it in the heart of the king to glorify the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem. ²⁸And as for me, He granted me favor before the king and his councillors and the king’s warrior nobles, and I summoned strength as the hand of the LORD my God was upon me, and I gathered chieftains from Israel to go up with me.