¹And after these words, in the kingdom of Artaxerxes the king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,

²the son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub,

³the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth,

⁴the son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki,

⁵the son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the head priest —

⁶he is Ezra; he came up from Babylon, and he was a scribe swift in the instruction of Moses which Yahweh the God of Israel set; and the king set to him, as the hand of Yahweh his God over him, all his request.

⁷And there came up from the children of Israel, and from the priests and the Levites and those who sing and the gatekeepers and the Nethinim, to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.

⁸And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was the seventh year of the king.

⁹For on the first of the first month was the beginning of the step from Babylon, and on the first of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, as the good hand of his God over him.

¹⁰For Ezra established his heart to inquire the instruction of Yahweh, and to make, and to teach in Israel statute and justice.

¹¹And this is the copy of the letter which the king Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, who counted the words of the commandments of Yahweh and his statutes over Israel:

¹²Artaxerxes, the king of the kings, to Ezra the priest, the secretary of the decree of the God of the heavens, completed; and now,

¹³a decree is paid out by me, that all who volunteer in my kingdom, of the peoples of Israel and his priests and the Levites, to go to Jerusalem with you, he shall go.

¹⁴As to because you are sent from before the king and his seven counselors, to inquire in Judah and to Jerusalem, in the decree of your God which is in your hand,

¹⁵and to bear along the silver and gold which the king and his consulted together, having volunteered to the God of Israel whose abode is in Jerusalem,

¹⁶and all the silver and gold which you shall find in all the province of Babylon, with the volunteering of the peoples and the priests who have volunteered for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem;

¹⁷as to because, you shall thoroughly acquire with this silver oxen, rams, lambs, and their sacrificial offerings and their drink-offerings, and you shall approach them on the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem.

¹⁸And what you and your brothers shall make of the rest of the silver and gold, as the good pleasure of your God, you shall make.

¹⁹And the vessels which are given to you for the service of the house of your God, bring before the God of Jerusalem.

²⁰And the rest of the things needed of the house of your God which shall fall to you to give, you shall give from the house of the treasure of the king.

²¹And I, I is Artaxerxes the king, pay out a decree to all the treasurers who are in the region across the river, that all which Ezra the priest, the secretary of the decree of the God of the heavens, shall ask of you, thoroughly shall be made:

²²in silver, a hundred talents; and in wheats, a hundred cors; and in wine, a hundred baths; and in baths of oil, a hundred; and salt without writing.

²³All which is in the decree of the God of the heavens, let it be made correctly for the house of the God of the heavens; for to what shall there be wrath over the kingdom of the king and his sons?

²⁴And it is made known to you, that upon all the priests and Levites, singers, porters, Nethinin, and worshipers of the house of God, it is not ruled to throw tribute and toll on them.

²⁵And you, O Ezra, as the wisdom of your God which is in your hand, appoint judges and judges who shall judge all the peoples who are in the region across the river, all those who know the decree of your God; and who knew not, you shall make known.

²⁶And all who will not make the decree of your God and the decree of the king, thoroughly let court be made on him: if to the death, and if to the uprooting, and if to the amercing of riches, and to bands.

²⁷Blessed be Yahweh the God of our fathers, who set as this in the heart of the king to go over the house of Yahweh which is in Jerusalem,

²⁸and stretched out loyal love over me to the face of the king and his advisers and to all the mighty officials of the king; and I strengthened myself as the hand of Yahweh my God over me, and I gathered together heads from Israel to come up with me.