Ezra 7:1–15

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 Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the head priest; ⁶Ezra himself hath come up from Babylon, and he is a scribe ready in the law of Moses, that Jehovah God of Israel gave, and the king giveth to him—according to the hand of Jehovah his God upon him—all his request. ⁷And there go up of the sons of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the gatekeepers, and the Nethinim, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king. ⁸And he cometh in to Jerusalem in the fifth month, that is in the seventh year of the king, ⁹for on the first of the month he hath founded the ascent from Babylon, and on the first of the fifth month he hath come in unto Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him, ¹⁰for Ezra hath prepared his heart to seek the law of Jehovah, and to do, and to teach in Israel statute and judgment.

¹¹And this is a copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, a scribe of the words of the commands of Jehovah, and of His statutes on Israel: ¹²‘Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, a perfect scribe of the law of the God of heaven, and at such a time: ¹³By me hath been made a decree that every one who is willing, in my kingdom, of the people of Israel and of its priests and Levites, to go to Jerusalem with thee, doth go; ¹⁴because that from the king and his seven counsellors thou art sent, to inquire concerning Judah and concerning Jerusalem, with the law of God that is in thy hand, ¹⁵and to carry silver and gold that the king and his counsellors willingly offered to the God of Israel, whose tabernacle is in Jerusalem,