24. Also unto you we cause it to be known, that regarding all of the priests and Levites, singers, porters, Nethinims, and ministers of the house of this God, no one shall be able to impose toll, tribute, or custom, upon them.
25. And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, that is in thy hand, set as judges and governors, who govern all the people that are on the other side of the river, all such as know the laws of thy God, and teach those that do not know them.
26. And whoever will not do the law of thy God and the law of the king, let them be judged speedily, whether it be unto death or to banishment or to confiscation of goods or to imprisonment.
27. Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to honour the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem,
28. and has extended mercy unto me before the king, and his counsellors and before all the king’s mighty princes. And I, comforted according to the hand of the Lord my God upon me, gathered together the principals of Israel to go up with me.