29. I now free you and excuse all the Jews from payment of tribute as well as salt and royal taxes.
30. Instead of collecting a third of the grain and half of the fruit of the trees as I should, I release you from payment from now on. I will not collect them from the land of Judah or from the three districts added to it from Samaria and Galilee, from this day on and for all time.
31. Jerusalem and its surroundings, its tenth-part gifts and its revenues, will be holy and free from tax.
32. I will also give up my control of the elevated fortress in Jerusalem and give it to the high priest. He may station people of his own choice to guard it.
33. I set free, without payment, all of the Jews who have been taken captive from Judah into any part of my kingdom. Furthermore, let all officials also cancel taxes on their livestock.
34. All the festivals will be days of immunity and release for all the Jews who are in my kingdom, including sabbaths, new moons, appointed days, and the three days before and after a festival.
35. No one will have authority to demand anything from them or annoy any of them about anything.
36. Let Jews be enrolled in the king’s forces to the number of thirty thousand. And let the privileges be given them that are due to all the forces of the king.
37. Let some of them be stationed in the king’s great fortress. Let some of them be placed in trustworthy positions in the kingdom. Let their officers and leaders come from their own people, and let them live by their own laws, just as the king has commanded in the land of Judah.
38. As for the three districts that have been added to Judea from the country of Samaria, let them be annexed to Judea so that they may be considered under one ruler and obey no other authority than the high priest.
39. I give Ptolemais as a gift and the land adjoining it to the sanctuary in Jerusalem, to provide the necessary expenses of the sanctuary.
40. I also grant fifteen thousand silver shekels annually out of the king’s revenues from appropriate places.
41. All the additional funds that the government officials haven’t paid as they used to, they will give from now on for the service of the temple.