Ezra 7:24–28

24 We also notify you that it shall not be lawful to impose otribute, custom, or toll on anyone of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the doorkeepers, the temple servants, or other servants of this house of God.

25 “And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, pappoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people in the province Beyond the River, all such as know the laws of your God. qAnd those who do not know them, you shall teach. 26 Whoever will not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be strictly executed on him, whether for death or for banishment or for confiscation of his goods or for imprisonment.”

27 rBlessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, swho put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem, 28 tand who extended to me his steadfast love before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty officers. I took courage, for the hand of the Lord my God was on me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.