7. And there went up some of the children 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.
8. And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.
9. For upon the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.
10. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and ordinances.
11. Now this is the copy of the letter that king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe, even a scribe of the words of the commandments of the LORD, and of his statutes to Israel.
12. Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, perfect peace, and so forth.
13. I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, who are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, may go with you.
14. For as you are sent by the king, and by his seven counselors, to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of your God which is in your hand;
15. And to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counselors have freely offered unto the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem,
16. And all the silver and gold that you can find in all the province of Babylon, with the freewill offering of the people, and of the priests, offered willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem:
17. That you may buy promptly with this money bullocks, rams, lambs, with their meal offerings and their drink offerings, and offer them upon the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem.
18. And whatsoever shall seem good to you, and to your brethren, to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, that do according to the will of your God.