16. You must also go through all the provinces of Babylonia. Collect the gifts from your people, from the priests, and from the Levites. The gifts are for the Temple of their God in Jerusalem.
17. Use this money to buy bulls, rams, and male lambs. Buy the grain offerings and drink offerings that go with these sacrifices. Then sacrifice them on the altar in the Temple of your God in Jerusalem.
18. Then you and the other Jews may spend the silver and gold left over any way you want to. Use it in a way that is pleasing to your God.
19. Take all these things to the God of Jerusalem. They are for the worship in the Temple of your God.
20. And you may get any other things that you need for the Temple of your God. Use the money in the king’s treasury to buy anything you need.
21. Now I, King Artaxerxes, give this order: I order all the men who keep the king’s money in the area west of the Euphrates River to give Ezra anything he wants. Ezra is a priest and a teacher of the Law of the God of heaven. Do this quickly and completely.
22. Give this much to Ezra: 3 3/4 tons of silver, 600 bushels of wheat, 600 gallons of wine, 600 gallons of olive oil, and as much salt as Ezra wants.
23. Anything that the God of heaven has ordered for Ezra to get, you must give to Ezra quickly and completely. Do this for the Temple of the God of heaven. We don’t want God to be angry with my kingdom or my sons.
24. I want you men to know that it is against the law to make the priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, Temple servants, and other workers in God’s Temple pay taxes. They don’t have to pay taxes, money to honor the king, or any customs fees.
25. Ezra, I give you the authority to use the wisdom you have from your God and choose civil and religious judges. These men will be judges for all the people living in the area west of the Euphrates River. They will judge all the people who know the laws of your God and they will teach those who don’t know those laws.
26. Anyone who does not obey the law of your God, or the law of the king, must be punished. Depending on the crime, they must be punished with death, or sent away to another country, or their property taken away, or put into prison.
27. Blessed is the Lord, the God of our ancestors. He put the idea into the king’s heart to honor the Lord’S Temple in Jerusalem.
28. God showed his faithful love to me in front of the king, his advisors, and the king’s important officials. The Lord my God was with me, and that gave me courage. I gathered together the leaders of Israel to go with me to Jerusalem.